Barriers at the Ballot

Despite some encouraging developments, many blind and visually impaired people complain that they are still unable to secretly and independently cast their vote at elections. With UK elections fast approaching, this episode examines the current situation. Ian Hamilton reports on an initiative in Scotland, and also joining us are:- Rachael Andrews, whose action to bring a case to Court resulted in the Judge finding that the existing arrangements were "a parody of the Electoral system". Duncan Johnson from Pakflatt, a company that makes the McGonagle Reader, a device designed to enable secret and independent voting for blind people, and, Jackie Killeen, Director of administration and regulation at The Electoral Commission. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Fern Lulham Production Coordinator: Helen Surtees Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch"; and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.’

You can listen to Barriers at the Ballot online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Barriers at the Ballot is an episode from In Touch by BBC.

This episode is 18:50 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from In Touch when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.