👓 Elections (Accessibility for Blind Voters)

Commons Chamber

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Ms Julie Minns introduced a Bill aimed at enhancing voting accessibility for blind and partially sighted individuals, highlighting the persistent barriers they face at polling stations. The Bill proposes mandatory audio and tactile voting aids to ensure blind voters can vote independently and secretly. It also calls for a review of postal voting accessibility and seeks to implement new voting solutions. The House agreed to the Bill’s first reading, with a second reading scheduled for March 28.

Summary

  • Ms Julie Minns, a Labour MP from Carlisle, proposed a Bill in Parliament aimed at improving voting accessibility for blind and partially sighted voters.

  • The Bill requires the provision of audio and tactile voting measures at polling stations, allowing blind voters to vote independently and secretly.

  • It also mandates the Secretary of State to identify, develop, and implement new accessible voting solutions, and to review and improve the postal voting system for blind voters.

  • Ms Minns highlighted past efforts, including her work with the charity Scope in the 1990s, which led to the “Polls Apart” report detailing widespread inaccessibility at polling stations during the 1997 general election.

  • A recent report by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) indicated that only 25% of blind and partially sighted people felt they could vote independently and in secret during the 2024 general election.

  • Examples of accessibility issues include a blind voter named John from Carlisle who had to rely on memory and assistance from polling station staff due to the lack of tactile devices.

  • The Bill seeks to ensure that all voters with sight loss can access election information and mark their ballots independently, using existing technologies like tactile overlays and audio recordings.

  • Current voting systems force many blind voters to either reveal their choices to others or avoid voting altogether, undermining their democratic rights.

  • The Bill also calls for learning from other countries’ practices, such as Australia’s telephone voting system for disabled voters.

  • **The Bill was supported in Parliament and will have its Second Reading on 28 March.

Divisiveness

The parliamentary session transcript shows minimal to no disagreement among the members. Ms Julie Minns presented her motion for leave to bring in a Bill to improve voting accessibility for blind voters, and there were no recorded objections or debates against her proposal. The session ended with the question being put and agreed to, indicating unanimous support for the Bill to move forward to its First reading. No instances of disagreement or contention were evident in the transcript. This unanimous decision and lack of dissenting voices lead to a rating of 1 for disagreement, signifying a session with virtually no disagreement.