Guidance for Returning Officers - Assistance with voting for disabled voters

To help ensure that all voters are provided with equal access to voting and receive appropriate support, it is important that all of those who work to deliver the election or provide information to voters are aware of the needs of disabled people and your duty to anticipate and make reasonable adjustments to support disabled voters.
 
You should provide accessibility awareness training for all staff who interact with voters, including staff who support electoral services, to help improve their understanding of the needs of disabled voters and the importance of clear communication.

Working with external partners, we have developed resources that could help your staff to understand barriers to voting and experiences of disabled voters at the polling station including:

• RNIB video which shares the experiences of voting in the polling station for those with sight loss
• Mencap videos which share the experiences of Charlotte and Harry of voting in a polling station with a learning disability

You can take advice from relevant local authority colleagues on other accessibility awareness training that you could access. There are also online and in person courses available from various third sector organisations that you could access to build knowledge within your team on how to support different disabilities.

Staff should also be made aware of the resources we have available on our website and YouTube channel to assist disabled people with particular impairments to help with understanding about voting and what to expect at the polling station. For more information and updates about our resources we create you can subscribe to Roll Call our voter registration newsletter and your guide to supporting voter registration and participation.

You could also think about sourcing or developing evergreen resources that are not election specific and so can be used year round over multiple years in partnership with civil society organisations that advocate for and support their stakeholders on issues surrounding the accessibility of voting. 

Training for polling station staff to support accessibility

It is vital that your training for polling station staff addresses the importance of being aware of the accessibility needs of voters at the polling station and what steps they should take to support them.  

The actions and behaviours of polling station staff are key to making voters’ experience in the polling station a positive one. Simple things like ensuring all polling station staff are aware of the equipment and support available and proactively offering assistance and listening to voters’ questions can make a real difference. 

In addition to general awareness raising of accessibility needs, it is important that your training for polling station staff covers:

• the barriers faced by disabled voters at the polling station and how polling station staff can help reduce them
• awareness that there are no legal barriers to prevent disabled people from voting, including voters with any learning disability or cognitive impairment
• awareness that not all disabilities are visible or obvious, and that polling station staff should not make assumptions about what equipment voters might need
• the importance of considering the needs of the person, not a specific disability
• awareness that some voters may have more than one impairment – for example, a visual impairment and dementia
• the importance of a professional and welcoming environment with:
  • clear communication about the voting process, and
  • clear communication for all electors that assistance is available if required, including identifying members of staff who can be approached for additional support
• awareness of the equipment provided at the polling station to enable or make it easier for disabled voters to vote in the polling station, and how to use it. This is particularly important for equipment that polling station staff may be less familiar with, such as hearing loops or audio solutions
• the importance of ensuring that any such equipment provided is clearly displayed and accessible for voters to use
• awareness that a companion assisting a voter can accompany a voter into the booth to assist them once they have completed the declaration. This can be anyone:
  • over the age of 18 for UK Parliamentary elections, Police and Crime Commissioner elections, Northern Ireland Assembly elections, and local government elections in England and Northern Ireland, or
  • over the age of 16 for Senedd, Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections in Wales and Scotland
    • In Scotland the companion must also be able to vote in that election or be a close relative of the voter.
• awareness that disabled voters may have an assistance animal with them and that assistance animals should not be prevented from entering the polling station
• awareness that voters with sight loss may use apps on their mobile phones or carry pocket-sized assistive equipment, such as video magnifiers, to help them read documents in the polling booth or in conjunction with a tactile voting device
• awareness that the use of text to speech apps are acceptable for use in polling stations
• awareness of how to communicate with someone who is deaf or has hearing loss and alternative methods of communication that voters may use such as Makaton and British Sign Language (BSL)
• awareness that some voters have health conditions that require them to wear face masks to reduce viral risk factors in public places and how you would approach managing any photographic ID checks if required for your poll

In our core guidance for Returning Officers for each type of election, we link to resources for training polling station staff which contain information about the role polling station staff have in ensuring that voting is accessible and the equipment that is available to support disabled voters on accessibility which you should highlight when briefing polling station staff.