As a Member of Parliament, I always look forward to local elections. They’re a vital opportunity for communities to shape the future of their neighbourhoods, hold elected representatives accountable, and make their voices heard. There’s an unmistakable buzz in the air during campaign season — door knocking, lively debates, and a real sense of civic engagement. It’s democracy in its most local and personal form.
And yet for many blind and partially sighted voters, elections mean exclusion, uncertainty and humiliation. I want to fix that.
On Thursday 1 May, elections will be held for 23 councils and six Mayors in England. Around a third of electors in England are eligible to vote, and more than 1,600 councillors will be elected. Even more excitingly, next year — pending the results of the consultation on Cumbria’s proposal for a directly elected Mayor — Cumbrians could head to the polls to elect our first Mayor. But in all of these elections, will blind and partially sighted voters be able to make their choices in secret?
It’s been more than 150 years since the Ballot Act 1872 guaranteed the right to vote in secret, but for thousands of people with sight loss, this has never been a reality.
Let’s rewind, not to the late nineteenth century but to the late twentieth; it was the 1990s when I first began work on this issue. Sadly, I’m not quite young enough for this to have been a school project — it was actually an excellent campaign led by the disability charity Scope, for whom I had the privilege of working at that time. I would love to say that all the issues we identified have been resolved. Many were, but nearly three decades on, too many remain.
There’s no doubt that we care about electoral integrity, evidenced by the media debate on Artificial Intelligence and the risk it poses to democracy. Yet accessible voting for so many in our society has not been addressed. The law mandates ‘reasonable adjustments’ for voters with disabilities, but all too often these promises fall short in practice — and our democracy is all the poorer for it.
Recognising that there is still a long way to go when it comes to ensuring our democracy is open to all, I have introduced a Ten-Minute Rule Bill: the Elections (Accessibility for Blind Voters) Bill. Garnering diverse cross-party support, the Bill sets out the barriers facing voters with sight loss as well as the simple solutions available to make voting more accessible.
At its core, this bill makes clear that depriving people with sight loss of their ability to vote independently and in secret is a breach of basic human rights. Anna Tyler, RNIB Chair of Trustees tells me that a secret ballot is key to a healthy democracy and yet too many still cannot vote independently without fear of someone interfering with their vote either explicitly or implicitly. The simple fact is that the majority of blind voters cannot independently review the information on the ballot paper or make their mark under the current voting system.
But this is not out of reach. The technology is available, and the solutions are low-cost and effective. It’s really not rocket science: an audio-tactile device enables blind and partially sighted people to vote independently and in secret. This device, the McGonagle Reader, is the best solution currently available. Its tactile overlay is placed on top of the ballot paper, and the integrated audio player plays an audio recording of the candidate list. This combination allows blind voters to easily navigate and mark the ballot paper with autonomy, dignity and certainty.
A recent UK trial found that the audio-tactile device enabled 93% of participants to vote independently and in secret. I find it truly extraordinary that in 2025, when the world has advanced in so many ways, these solutions are still not routinely available in our polling stations as standard.
In the run up to these elections, I’m backing RNIB’s call for audio tactile solutions to be made available for all voters with sight loss. The charity’s research following the last general election was unequivocal: the voting experience of blind and partially sighted people won’t improve without significant changes to the system.
According to RNIB’s 2024 Turned Out report, only a quarter of voters with sight loss felt that the current system allowed them to vote independently and in secret. I simply won’t accept that it’s good enough that only half of blind and partially sighted voters were satisfied with their voting experience, and that nearly three quarters did not even know that they could request reasonable adjustments from their local polling station.
It’s safe to say that much remains to be done to address this issue. This must start with policymakers and electoral officials recognising that action is needed and finding ways forward to ensure solutions are routinely available in polling stations up and down the country. I will continue to play my part in working with the government to address this injustice in any upcoming legislation on elections.
Let’s make each election more inclusive than the last. I urge all blind and partially sighted voters to visit the RNIB website to learn how to request reasonable adjustments when they vote.
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Source: Politics
