History

A brief history of campaign

Since 1992 Scope has been reviewing disabled people’s access to the UK electoral system through our Polls Apart campaign.

At the last general election Scope's campaign volunteers surveyed over 2,000 polling stations and found that 68% of polling stations had one or more access problems that could make the experience of voting inaccessible to a disabled person.

Access barriers reported included lack of physical access, inaccessible information, and staff who were not trained to support disabled voters.

Polls Apart aims to:

• achieve comprehensive access to 100% of Polling Stations in the UK
• ensure all disabled people have the choice to vote in person
• raise awareness of the inaccessibility of many public buildings
• inform local authorities of their responsibilities
• highlight good practice and expose poor standards where they occur
• inform disabled people about their legal rights to elections

Polls Apart successes

Since it started in 1992 the Polls Apart campaign has:

• Been at the forefront of piloting new voting methods
• Received support from politicians and local authorities
• Changed the voting capacity test
• Been involved in plans for weekend voting and early voting
• Worked with the electoral commission to produce guidance
• Improved the accessibility of polling stations across the UK
• Changed legislation to improve disabled people’s access to elections

Facebook | Flickr