Roughly one in five New Zealand voters identify as disabled and some of them say casting a vote still means hunting for an accessible booth or giving up their privacy.
Access Matters Aotearoa Kōrero for change producer Natalie Brunzel is among them. She remembered the barriers she faced when voting in the 2023 election.
"I had to search through to find an accessible venue where I could cast my vote. Most of the booths are made for people to stand and cast their vote, so I had to find a place to cast my vote that I could do it sitting," she said.
Blind Low Vision NZ research and policy analyst Cain Richardson said even accessing information before the election can be challenging.
"Most of the current political parties don't put their election policies out in an accessible format. Most of them are PDFs that are hosted on a website, where they could quite easily be turned into an html page, which a blind person can access with a screen reader quite easily," he said.
Changes made
The Electoral Commission released its Accessible 2026 plan this year, setting out the services available to disabled voters and the improvements it is making.
Chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne said election information was available in formats including easy read and braille. He said the commission had also worked with the blind and low vision community to make sure assistive smartphone technology could read the emails it sends.
A full list of voting places will be published on vote.nz a month before election day. Voters will be able to use an interactive map to find their nearest voting place and see how accessible it is.
The plan also includes accessible voting options for people who are unable to get to a voting place.
Le Quesne said some voting places would look different on election day.
Accessible voting options are expanding, but disabled voters say finding suitable booths, accessing election information and voting independently remain challenges. (Source: 1News)
"We're trying to increase the number of voting places where we'll have sign language interpreters at set times. We're also going to try for the first time a few voting places where we'll have a low sensory environment to support the neurodivergent community," he said.
Richardson said Blind Low Vision NZ had helped provide etiquette training for electoral staff, such as speaking directly to blind voters rather than to the person accompanying them.
"Simple things such as if someone comes in with a person to assist them to help them find the voting place, electoral staff talk to the blind person rather than the support person," he said.
More work to do
Richardson said more needed to be done to protect the privacy of voters.
"They brought out the telephone dictation voting service, which works for people who want to use it to be able to vote independently over the phone, but it still requires someone on the other end of the phone to mark your ballot paper for you," Richardson said.
Brunzel said those who don't have use of their hands encounter a similar issue, when casting their ballot.
"They [staff] do offer to tick it for you but often you do actually know the people in the voting booths working there so it's not exactly a secret vote." she said.
The Electoral Commission said it was looking into the issue for future elections.
Brunzel also wanted to see more disabled candidates standing by the 2029 election.
"There is the Access Fund and the government has made a commitment towards that. However, we aren't really seeing disabled people coming through. There is still a shortfall for disabled people to be represented," she said.
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