Guidance for Returning Officers - Assistance with voting for disabled voters

Communicating directly with disabled residents can be a useful way to find out more about the types of provision disabled voters need as part of your anticipatory duty under the Equality Act.
 
Engaging with electors at an early stage in the run up to a poll is an opportunity to provide information about the type of support that could be given to assist them to participate in elections. Early engagement will give you more time to ask about their preferred format for accessible communications, understand what support could help them to vote and to consider any requests. Thinking about different methods of engagement and formats of information is particularly beneficial for blind, partially sighted or older people who are more likely to be digitally excluded.
 
You should explore how you can work with others across your local authority who may be able to assist you with identifying disabled electors in your area. You should put in place appropriate data sharing agreements for accessing relevant data about voters held by your local authority, which may also include information collected by the ERO, to enable you to communicate with them directly and in their preferred format. 
 
Your work on pre-election engagement and ensuring you have access to up-to-date data should be included in your election project and communications plans. You could also use this data to seek post-election feedback from disabled electors you have identified through this work using the template surveys we have provided.

Data sources

One type of local data set which can help you is your local sight loss register. This lists people in the local area who have a certification of vision impairment.
 
In England, under The Care Act 2014, sight loss registers can be used by the local authority to ensure that information about services is made accessible to that person for example to ask if support could be given to assist them to participate in electoral events.1 The access you have to this information may vary depending on whether you have been appointed by a district or unitary authority. 
 
In Wales and Scotland you can contact the relevant adult social care departments and in Northern Ireland, the relevant Health and Social Care Trusts for advice on how you can access information from the sight loss registers held by them.

If you are unable to access the sight loss register data, you can ask the data holder to send out information proactively to those on the registers on your behalf.

Proactively using local data by seeking information from the sight loss register or by using a resource like the sight loss data tool provided by the RNIB can help you find out how many electors in your area are affected by sight loss. Knowing more about the number of electors affected can help you:

• anticipate the needs of blind and partially sighted people in your area for example, ensuring poll cards are sent in individuals’ preferred formats enabling them to access the information on them independently
• comply with your duty under equalities legislation to make reasonable adjustments to assist individuals on the register to participate in elections