Accessible Voting

On Thursday 7 May 2026 there are local council and mayoral elections in England, Scottish Parliament elections, and Senedd elections in Wales.

Find out more about these elections, and how to request reasonable adjustments to vote.

Voting is a fundamental democratic right, but again our research found the current voting system simply doesn't work for blind and partially sighted people.

The General Election in 2024 wasn't accessible for people with sight loss, with only a quarter of blind people (26 per cent) saying that the current system allows them to vote independently and in secret.

Two thirds (66 per cent) of blind people who voted at the polling station had assistance from either a companion or member of polling station staff.

Importantly, 73 per cent of blind and partially sighted people didn’t know they could request reasonable adjustments from their local polling station to allow them to vote independently and in secret.

Read our latest Turned Out report to find out more.

If the sighted world had to share their vote choices, people and news outlets would be up in arms about everyone’s right to an anonymous vote. So, we’ve looked at what the experience might be like if everyone had company in the polling booth.

Watch our film to find out how it feels to vote as a blind or partially sighted person.

We frequently hear from people with sight loss about the challenges they face in exercising their right to cast a secret and independent vote.

The practical act of voting – making a cross in a specific location on a piece of paper – is fundamentally a visual exercise. Without being able to read the ballot paper, someone with sight loss often has to share their vote with someone else, either in the polling station or when voting by post.

Blind people have told us about times when they said their choice out loud in the polling station and people waiting nearby scoffed at their decision. Others have reported not being certain they voted the way they intended – because someone else had done it for them. Some also say they’ve opted out of the process altogether.

Several reliable solutions already exist, but they haven’t been rolled out nationwide. These must be made widely available so every blind and partially sighted person can vote independently and in secret.

Blind and partially sighted people have a right to vote in secret. The UK Government has a responsibility to make sure there are alternative ways to participate for those who find the current system inaccessible.

We’re urging the UK Government to make voting accessible, once and for all, so that blind and partially sighted people can cast their vote independently and in secret.

We’ve been campaigning for a wider range of accessible voting solutions to be tested and made more easily available both across the UK and in the devolved nations.

In May 2019, the High Court ruled that present provisions for voters with sight loss were “a parody of the electoral process” because they fail to allow them to vote independently and in secret. This was because the two main voting aids being used – a large-print ballot paper (available for reference) and a tactile voting device (a plastic template that fits over the ballot paper) – still mean people need a sighted person to read the content of the ballot paper and guide them where to put their cross.

Following this, RNIB worked with government on a small-scale trial of audio and tactile solutions in 2021.These solutions received much better feedback from blind and partially sighted people, but these measures weren’t made routinely available in every polling station.

Despite this progress, draft legislation on elections brought before Parliament in autumn 2021 was a major step backwards.

The proposed legislation weakened existing legal protections. It removed the need for every polling station to provide a device to make voting possible “without any assistance” for voters with sight loss. Instead, it placed the burden on individuals to request the reasonable adjustments they need from their local electoral officials.

RNIB campaigned strongly against these changes in our #BlindVotersCount campaign. More than 7,000 people signed our petition calling on the then Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove MP, to keep the guarantee that people with sight loss can vote without assistance.

As a result, the UK Government backed amendments to the Bill put forward by Lord Holmes. These amendments meant that the principle of an independent and secret vote was included in the final legislation. They also imposed new legal duties for the Electoral Commission to produce guidance to support an independent and secret vote from 2023.

RNIB contributed to the development of this guidance and has continued to work with both the Electoral Commission and Returning Officers since then.

The changes made to the law place the responsibility on blind and partially sighted people to contact electoral authorities and request the specific adaptations they need. These requests may or may not be granted.

Most blind and partially sighted people are unlikely to know these provisions exist or what adaptations they can ask for. The short timescale of a General Election being called with six weeks’ notice can also make it difficult for electoral staff to respond to requests in time.

As these requirements sit in guidance rather than law, the minimum standard of equipment available in polling stations remains largely the same as it was in 2019. For that reason, we don’t expect most people’s voting experience to have changed.

While the guidance lists audio devices as equipment that polling stations could provide, they’re not part of the minimum standard. In most cases, they’ll only be provided when a need has been identified or when they’ve been specifically requested.

Blind and partially sighted people often tell us they’d prefer online or telephone voting, as getting to the polling station can be a barrier for some people. For example, Australia has a human-assisted telephone voting model, where a blind or partially sighted person can pre-register, and on the day of the election they can vote over the phone anonymously and therefore secretly.

The UK Government has so far ruled out alternative voting methods, and we have therefore been exploring ways audio can be used with tactile to enable people to vote.

Four accessible solutions were tested by blind and partially sighted people at RNIB’s office in London in September 2023 with the Electoral Commission and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The solutions include a range of tactile and audio devices which allow people with sight loss to determine the order of the list of candidates and mark their desired box independently.

Read about our accessible voting trial here.

Read the report of the trial here.