Disability awareness training

– ensuring that elections staff know their responsibilities and voters know their rights.

My Vote My Voice believes that all election staff teams and Returning Officers (ROs) should be offered training and education on the voting barriers disabled people face, with special attention to hidden disabilities such as autism and learning disabilities, in order to meet their legal obligations to provide reasonable adjustments.
My Vote My Voice calls on the Electoral Commission’s guidance for Returning Officers to shift the discretional tone in its language around the provision of key supports to an explicitly mandatory one, clarifying that ROs have a legal duty to meet all voters’ needs to the best of their abilities in every instance.