My Vote My Voice

For years now, disabled people’s organisations have been demanding change to ensure voting is equal for everyone. In 2008, United Response launched the Every Vote Counts campaign, and in 2010, Mencap launched the Get My Vote campaign. With little improvements since then, the two organisations have teamed up alongside Dimensions and Ambitious About Autism to improve access.

Challenges

Ali Gunn is the head of public affairs and policy at United Response, and believes that the organisations can make a difference by teaming up.

“People with disabilities haven’t been able to use their right to vote for a number of years,” explains Ali, “We want to ensure that people with learning disabilities and all people across the country are able to take part in the democratic process.”

The My Vote My Voice campaign is on a mission to encourage people with learning disabilities and autistic people to vote in the next general election, but it is also bringing awareness to the barriers that currently exist.

“The campaign is making sure that MPs are aware of that, because sometimes their party communications, their policies or their manifestos might not be accessible,” reveals Ali. “We’re trying to get MPs to think about what their constituents need now rather than it being an afterthought.”

Organisations, groups and selfadvocates are invited to be part of the campaign. It is hoped that by promoting the campaign, gathering people’s experiences and sharing resources, more people are able to vote, not just in the next general election, but for years to come.

Importance

Everyone should have the right to vote, but this isn’t always possible: inaccessible polling stations, a lack of easy read information during elections, and other barriers on polling day all play a part. Before the next general election arrives, people around the country will first vote in local elections during May 2023, and with those a new policy comes into force that could cause further issues.

“These local elections are the first time that new requirements come into play under the Elections Act,” reveals Ali. “There is lots of brilliant stuff in there around accessibility, but there is also a new requirement for people to show valid identification on polling day. Disabled people are among around two million people who might not have that ID.”

The campaign includes working with the Electoral Commission to ensure people can access resources around these changes.

Praise

The campaign has already received praise and support from MPs, people with lived experience and other organisations.

“MPs have been engaging, they want to know what barriers are there, people are really seeing the value of joining together to make sure that everyone has equal access to voting,” offers Ali.

People with a learning disability and autistic people are being invited to share their experiences through the My Vote My Voice survey, with hopes that this data will go on to inform future policy and recommendations to the government.

“There’s a range of questions around accessible information; do people know where to go to find that information?; are people aware of voter ID?; what have their experiences been like at the polling station before?” considers Ali. “Once the survey closes, we’re going to produce a report which will look at the current barriers, and hopefully by the general election and following that, people’s experience will have improved.”

For More Information

To access resources, fill out the survey or to find out more about the campaign, visit the My Vote My Voice website (www.myvotemyvoice.org.uk).

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