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We recently held an accessible voting workshop in conjunction with the Sheffield Returning Officer and RNIB, with several of SRSB clients and staff giving feedback on their experiences of voting. We heard about two pieces of equipment that have been designed to assist visually impaired people to vote privately - the McGonagle and Lonsdale. This equipment was available at the session for people to try and give their thoughts about it. Both pieces of equipment have audio (with headphones for privacy).
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We heard how 73% of people don't know about asking for reasonable adjustments at polling stations, so if this is relevant to you, please contact 0114 2734093 and choose the Reasonable Adjustments option, and speak to someone about the range of assistance available, and if an audio device will help then we can make those arrangements by appointment. Or by email to electoralservices@sheffield.gov.uk
We were also hearing from several of our VI clients that use postal voting, which led to a discussion about the privacy of voting in this way, which then led to us arranging a drop in day at SRSB on Monday 27th April from 10am to 2pm to support people with completing their postal vote. The Returning Officer will have staff on site with a McGonagle Reader for our clients - you will be shown how to use this, enabling you to vote independently and privately. You will then be able to either post your postal vote pack or complete a request for the Returning Officer staff to take with them.
We wanted to offer this drop in to firstly make people aware of the adjustments that are available, but also to see if this is something we could hold again for other elections. Please let us know your thoughts.