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<p>The Government is committed to ensuring that elections are accessible for all those
eligible to vote.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>To that end, the Government has introduced
a number of measures to support the accessibility of elections in the recently introduced
Elections Bill, such as removing restrictions on who can act as a companion to support
voters with disabilities and placing a broader requirement for Returning Officers
to consider the needs of all disabled voters when providing equipment for polling
stations.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Specifically on issues related to sight loss,
we were pleased to be able to carry out some testing of accessible voting solutions
for blind and partially sighted electors with the RNIB and Broadland District Council
at the recent elections in May, and we are currently considering our next steps. We
will continue to work with the RNIB and other interested groups in taking this forward
and have already talked with RNIB about looking at the postal vote system to see how
and where that can be improved to support engagement.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>We
also continue to work with the members of the Accessibly of Elections Working Group,
including the Electoral Commission, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives
and the Association of Electoral Administrators. The Association of Electoral Administrators
provides training and guidance for Returning Officers and their teams to further improve
the support provided to enable disabled electors to participate in future elections.</p><p>
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