DISABILITY AND VOTING

ONE in seven (14%) disabled people say they find the process of voting at a polling station difficult.

In a nationally representative survey of 1,609 disabled adults, aged 18-65 in the UK, those who said that they found the experience of voting at a local polling station difficult identified a range of reasons.

They included feeling overwhelmed by the situation (35%), onsite parking difficulties (23%) and the polling station not being designed to accommodate their disability (20%).

Among this group, one in seven (15%) said they experienced negative attitudes towards them by staff at the polling station and 14% said the voting form did not accommodate for their disability.

A small minority (2%) who say they wanted to vote, reported being prevented from doing so because their disability related needs were not met.

Leonard Cheshire has calculated that this may represent 52,820 disabled people who were not able to exercise their right to vote.

Disabled people have the same right to vote as everybody else and it is absolutely unacceptable that they should face any barriers when exercising this important democratic right.

Local councils must engage with disabled voters, assess the accessibility of their polling stations and address any potential barriers, to ensure that voting is inclusive of everyone.