Vision Support’s Visit to London – for the RNIB Accessible Voting Trial.
If you live with a vision impairment, you know the barriers associated with voting either by post or attending a polling station in person. It is hard to keep your vote confidential, you may have to rely on sighted assistance to even get to a polling station and it can all feel quite disempowering. When we were told about the RNIB Accessible Voting Trial we asked a small focus group to be involved.
Our group consisted of Community Engagement Coordinators Josh and Megan three service users from Cheshire and North Wales, and Guide Dog Maggie. We all met at Chester station at 11:30am for a long journey to The Big Smoke. One change at Crewe, some sandwiches on the train, lots of chat and anticipation for the day ahead and only one small delay getting into London later, and we arrived into London Euston around 2:20pm.
Here we encountered out first challenge of the day; finding the taxi. Josh and Megan guided the group to the taxi pick up, after receiving message it had arrived, only to find it not there! After talking to the driver, we discovered he was waiting outside the M&S round the corner, so off we all went there to find him.
Once we had squashed inside the taxi for the short journey, we arrived at the new RNIB offices just on time for the testing session to start. We didn’t get to see much of the new building while we were there, but the parts we did see were very nicely decorated, with a modern feel, and it was clear there had been a considered approach to colour choices and use of tactile surfaces inside and outside of the building. There were comfy seats in the reception area and, most importantly, a well-stocked refreshments table. The group were taken downstairs and set up at their trial stations, ready to test different methods. During the trail there were four different methods available to try and provide feedback on each one. For a description of each method check out RNIB’s write up of the day: Voting solutions for blind and partially sighted | RNIB | RNIB.
Clare preferred one of the new tactile voting devices; using plastic flaps to help identify each option, and buttons to tell you what each one was.
Marla preferred the audio device which requires you to wear headphones. You put the device on top of the ballot paper, and there are several tactile small circular buttons on the front interface of the device. All you have to do is press each button and it will audibly read out through your headphones one candidate at a time. When the audio reads out the candidate you want to vote for, open the shutter which is to the right of the corresponding button which read out your candidate, then you get your pencil, sign a cross in the tactile frame and close the shutter. After that, when you take the tactile frame off the paper, your vote is exactly the same as everyone else’s.
After the group had finished their tests, we all met up in the reception. Maggie went for an explore of the neighbouring park with Clare and Megan, while everyone else waited for our taxi back to the station. The taxi arrived fifteen minutes late; meaning we arrived at Euston one minute after our train left! One long queue for the ticket office later, and we were rebooked onto the next train. We all left London one hour later than intended, meaning we got back to Chester around 8:30pm. From here everyone went their own way home, in taxis, connecting trains or with family.
Everyone agreed that while it was a very long day, it had been enjoyable. Clare thought all the different ways of voting were good and enjoyed being given the chance to try them out. Previously, Clare has had to tell someone which box she would like to tick on the voting sheet, so now that anonymous voting is being investigated, she feels it’s a big step forward. Marla was so glad that she took the opportunity and hopes her feedback on the voting methods will improve voting for the blind and visually impaired in polling stations everywhere in the near future.
