A mixed picture on accessible voting at the 2026 local elections in England

We were pleased that some local authorities did provide these devices, but we know that the majority didn’t. What we need is a national standard so that blind and partially sighted people can expect audio and tactile voting equipment to be available at all polling stations.

RNIB has campaigned for accessible voting for many years. 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. But solutions do exist, using both audio and tactile elements.

Before the local elections on 7 May, we wrote to each of the 136 local authorities with elections in their area to make clear that accessible voting solutions with audio and tactile features should be available at every polling station.

What happened on polling day?

When polling day arrived, provision was a very mixed picture. A minority of local authorities did make accessible voting solutions with both audio and tactile elements available. But we heard that even when devices were available, this wasn’t always clearly communicated to voters with sight loss. Moreover, polling station staff training remains insufficient, as knowledge of how to support someone by setting up available devices was not always adequate. As a result, our initial feedback suggests that use of these devices by blind and partially sighted voters wasn’t as widespread as it otherwise could’ve been.

One blind voter who was provided with the McGonagle Reader (the combined audio-tactile voting device) told us they really liked the device, but the polling station staff had only very brief training and needed to remind themselves how to use it by watching a YouTube video. Another blind voter described how staff at his polling station didn’t know how to support him in using the device (or whether all the necessary parts were even there). “Though the staff asked me to return later in the day, this was impossible because of my schedule. This meant I had to ask my friend to vote for me, meaning I was unable to exercise my right to vote independently and in secret.”

Another user had similar challenges with staff lacking experience, but reported that ‘it was a massive improvement’ using the device all the same.

A voter in a different area said that no adjustments were made for her at the polling station, and as a result, she didn’t vote. A fifth voter told us that their polling station didn’t even have the basic tactile voting device at first, so she had to wait for it to be brought from another location. “I did feel it made a bit of a spectacle of me,” she explained.

Tom Skelton, RNIB Policy Lead for accessible voting, said:

“What we really need is a clear requirement for all polling stations to provide accessible voting equipment with both audio and tactile elements, without blind and partially sighted people facing the burden of having to proactively find out about what options are available in advance, and request them, without any guarantee they’ll be provided.”

We’re now gathering further feedback from blind and partially sighted voters and local authority electoral services. If you’re blind or partially sighted and you voted (or attempted to vote) in these elections, or if you work for a local authority electoral services team, we’d love to hear about your experiences of local provision at [email protected].

What else did RNIB do to campaign for accessible local elections?

RNIB reached out to a number of local authorities and held accessible voting workshops with their electoral services teams, involving local sight loss societies and the providers of the McGonagle Reader and the Lonsdale device (accessible voting devices).

These sessions were a great opportunity to demonstrate how accessible voting devices work, how staff can support voters with sight loss at the polling station, and the importance of councils communicating to voters in advance that accessible voting devices will be available.

Local blind and partially sighted people who took part in these workshops spoke about their past voting experiences, and how arrangements at polling stations generally don’t enable them to exercise their basic democratic right to vote independently and in secret. For example, longstanding types of support, such as providing a large print example of the ballot paper for reference, or a simple tactile overlay for the ballot paper, don’t go far enough. To make use of these, voters with sight loss need to either rely on having some sight, or having someone else read the ballot paper for them, and mark the ballot paper on their behalf.

Newcastle and London were two areas where we engaged large numbers of electoral services staff. Our Area Campaigns Lead, Lewis Winton, delivered a visual awareness session to more than 200 polling station staff at Newcastle City Council, and in London our Area Campaigns Officer, Clay Nash, held a session for hundreds of electoral services staff who are part of the Association of Electoral Administrators.

Further influencing activity by RNIB included:

• Before the local elections, we met with the Minister for Democracy, Samantha Dixon, to explain RNIB’s key policy recommendations on accessible voting.
• To make sure that blind and partially sighted voters could easily contact their local electoral service to request accessible voting devices, we shared a template letter for people to send to their local authority.

What needs to happen next?

RNIB is calling for a change to the law, to make clear that all local authorities across in the UK must provide voting equipment for blind and partially sighted voters which enables an independent and secret vote. We’re working with MPs to put down an amendment to a bill that’s currently going through Parliament, the Representation of the People Bill. We want the bill to name audio and tactile voting methods as adjustments which must be made available for voters with sight loss.

At the same time, we need all polling station staff to be trained so they’re familiar with accessible voting devices, can reliably demonstrate how they work to voters with sight loss, and can provide any other support required at the polling station. RNIB will be scaling up our training of electoral services staff and highlighting lessons learned from the recent local elections.

We’ll also continue to make blind and partially sighted people aware of their right to vote independently and in secret, and how to request reasonable adjustments to do this.

We’re pleased that our efforts to train electoral services and polling station staff, and to raise awareness of accessible voting amongst voters with sight loss, will receive a boost from Electoral Commission funding. This funding will be provided as part of a democratic engagement project, to increase and improve the voting participation of disabled voters.

Find out more

Read more about RNIB’s campaign for accessible voting, and information for blind and partially sighted people on voting in elections.

Please note this update covers local elections in England, but on 7 May 2026 elections also took place for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru). You can read more on RNIB’s campaigning for accessible voting in Scotland and Wales.