Accessible Voting Workshop & Postal Voting Session

Read about the outcome from an accessible voting workshops where clients gave their feedback

We recently held an accessible voting workshop and device demonstration day for blind & partially sighted residents in conjunction with the Sheffield Returning Officer and RNIB with several SRSB clients and staff giving feedback on their experiences of voting. 
We heard how 73% of people don’t know about asking for reasonable adjustments at polling stations. 
A phone line was available to call and a Reasonable Adjustments option allowed you to speak to someone about the range of assistance available, and if an audio device would help, then arrangements were made by appointment. 
We also heard from several of our VI clients who use postal voting, which led to a discussion about the privacy of voting in this way, which then led to us arranging a drop in day at SRSB to support people with completing their postal vote. The Returning Officer had staff on site with a McGonagle Reader for our clients to use, enabling them to vote independently and privately. They were able to post their postal vote back or complete a request for the Returning Officer staff to take it with them.
We had several people in that day either to do a postal vote or just find out more about the equipment available at polling stations.
We wanted to offer this drop in to firstly make people aware of the adjustments that are available, but also to see if this is something we could hold again for other elections.