Make this the last inaccessible election for blind people in UK, campaigners demand

Tens of thousand of people with sight loss will be denied their right to a secret ballot at next week’s general election, campaigners have warned, prompting calls to make it the last inaccessible election.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is calling on all political parties to commit to remove barriers that prevent blind people voting on their own and without help in future elections.

It estimates that 160,000 people in the UK of voting age with severe sight loss will struggle to vote independently because of the lack adjustments made at polling stations.

At the last general election, research for the RNIB found that only 13% of blind people felt they could vote independently and in secret.

In a 2019 court judgment, the voting arrangements for blind and partially sighted people were declared unlawful and a “parody of the electoral process”.

In polling stations, blind and partially sighted people are still only legally entitled to a selector – a plastic overlay on voting papers featuring braille numbers to help identify candidates. It involves being accompanied into the voting booth and having voting choices read out.

More sophisticated audio readers, which do allow secret voting, are available only to those who request them in advance.

The RNIB chair of trustees, Anna Tylor, has written an open letter to the next government warning that she, and tens of thousands of other blind and partially sighted people, are being robbed of the “right to a secret vote”. Citing the report on the 2019 election, she said: “Some reported having to tell someone how they wanted to vote, and heard others scoff at their choice; others had their selection audibly pointed out for everyone to hear.”

She added: “This must be the last election where people with sight loss are so disenfranchised.”

Jemma Brown, 35, who plans to vote next week in the Southampton Itchen constituency, said: “I do feel my right to a secret vote is treated as less important than everyone else’s. I am always relying on another person, so I do take a deep breath when I walk into my polling station.

“Almost every time we have an election, I have train the staff myself to be able to cast my vote.”

Speaking to the Guardian, she recalled that at a recent election for a police and crime commissioner the officer helping her skipped the name of one candidate. She said: “It meant I voted for the wrong person and had to cross it out. I have no idea whether that vote will have counted.”

Brown added: “The system is so archaic. It’s 2024 and the best we can offer blind and visually impaired people is a sheet of plastic that someone else has to stick on their voting cards.”