Final report - Voting centre accessibility

1.1 Voting centre accessibility

In December 2025, the Victorian Parliament initiated this Inquiry into voting centre accessibility. The Electoral Matters Committee was asked to conduct the Inquiry and report back to the Parliament.

People with disability encounter multiple barriers to participation in electoral processes. To ensure that our democracy is healthy, it must be inclusive. It is important to understand what these barriers are, to eliminate them where possible and to mitigate them where they cannot be eliminated. As one submitter told the Committee:

Improving physical access is not just about ticking a box; it is a commitment to ensuring that people with disabilities feel welcomed, respected, and fully included in their communities. Strengthening accessibility at voting centres helps uphold the values we pride ourselves on as Australians and ensures that every eligible voter has a fair and equal opportunity to take part in shaping our shared future as one community.^[1]

The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) recognises the importance of accessibility at voting centres. The VEC explained:

We are committed to ensuring that all Victorians can participate fully in their electoral system. This commitment is driven by the principles of accessibility, equity, and inclusion, and reflects our role in delivering elections that are fair, transparent, and representative.

Accessible voting centres are a critical point of contact between voters and the electoral system. While disability access and inclusion also encompass education, information, and engagement, the accessibility of voting venues is central to a voter’s ability to vote independently and with confidence.^[2]

In conducting this Inquiry, the Committee heard from people with disability and organisations representing people with disability. They shared their experiences with voting and their ideas about how things could be improved. Based on this, the Committee believes that more could be done to reduce barriers to participation in elections.

The Committee would like to see changes to how voting centres are selected, how they are run and what furniture and equipment are supplied. Improvements should also be made to the VEC’s communications. Voters with disability need clear information about their voting options, what to expect at voting centres and how to complete their ballot papers. Underpinning all of this is a need for staff to be trained to understand the needs of people with disability and how to support them.

Specific recommendations are detailed throughout this report.

Overall, the Committee considers that the VEC needs to take a new approach to accessibility to thoroughly integrate it into planning and service delivery. Three guiding principles to support that new approach are set out in Section 1.4 of this chapter.

1.2 The Inquiry process

In conducting this Inquiry, the Committee invited stakeholders to contribute their views and share their experiences. The Committee wrote to multiple organisations associated with people with disability, inviting the organisations to make written submissions and to invite their members to make submissions. The Committee also posted information on its webpage and through the Parliament’s social media. Information was provided in a variety of formats, including written material, videos and Auslan.

The Committee:

• received written submissions from 52 organisations and individuals
• conducted public hearings to speak with 14 groups and organisations
• requested and analysed a variety of documents from the VEC.

The Committee is grateful to everybody who contributed their experiences and expertise to this Inquiry. The information supplied through submissions and public hearings has been critical for the Committee to understand the issues and identify potential improvements. The Committee sincerely thanks everybody who participated.

Appendix A of this report provides more details about the Inquiry process and who contributed.

1.3 Lived experience is important for understanding

Hearing from people with lived experience was essential for this Inquiry. As Morgan O’Sullivan from the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service told the Committee:

Listening to people with lived experience is how we make sure that the systems are designed to meet the needs of those who are impacted, resulting in better outcomes for everyone.^[3]

Numerous people with lived experience provided written submissions to the Committee directly. Several organisations conducted surveys or consulted with their members and shared the feedback with the Committee. Some people with disability attended public hearings to share their experiences and ideas with the Committee in person.

The Committee was also able to draw on a survey it conducted of people with disability as part of a previous inquiry.^[4]

The details of people’s lived experiences were extremely helpful for the Committee in understanding the barriers that people face at voting centres.

Throughout this report, the Committee has included quotes from people with lived experience. These quotes are not intended to capture the full experience of living with disability and do not include all the experiences that people shared with the Committee. The quotes have been selected to illustrate different aspects of the voting experience for people with disability.

Ultimately, it will be important for the voices of people with lived experience to be heard as part of any initiatives in this space. In considering the recommendations in this report and deciding whether to implement them, the VEC should consult with its Electoral Access Advisory Group and other relevant stakeholders. This is important to ensure that actions are implemented in a way that genuinely reduces barriers for people with disability.

1.4 A new approach is needed, incorporating three guiding principles

The Committee recognises that the VEC has established some systems to consider the needs of people with disability in its planning and election delivery (see Section 3.4 in Chapter 3 for more details). The Committee commends the VEC for this effort but believes that more could be done to reduce the barriers faced by people with disability.

Numerous specific changes have been recommended throughout this report. In addition, the VEC would benefit from an overall change to the way that it approaches accessibility. The Committee has identified three key principles to guide this new way of considering the topic:

• an accessibility-first approach
• a whole-of-journey approach
• recognising and understanding the diversity of disability.

These principles should be incorporated into planning, process development and service delivery. Incorporating these principles will highlight areas where more can be done, will assist the VEC to provide a more inclusive voting experience and will help the VEC meet its obligations under legislation and the standards in international agreements.

1.4.1An accessibility-first approach

An accessibility-first approach involves designing processes and materials to be accessible from the beginning, rather than accessibility being an add-on or an afterthought. It involves trying to create a voting experience without barriers, rather than creating a system with barriers and then trying to find ways to help people who are affected by those barriers. It involves reconsidering existing systems to remove barriers.

Connected with this is the idea of ‘universal design’.^[5] As with an accessibility-first approach, universal design aims to make things accessible from the beginning. The Victorian Government has a Universal design policy which focuses on incorporating universal design principles into infrastructure projects.^[6]

In addition to ensuring that people have physical access to a space, universal design involves creating spaces that can be used independently.^[7] This is a key part of what it means to make something accessible. While recognising that some people with disability will always need assistance, voting should be designed to allow as many people as possible to participate without assistance.

Several stakeholders argued that all voting centres should be accessible.^[8] While the Committee agrees in principle, it may not be practicable to expect all voting centres to be universally accessible immediately. The VEC plans to operate approximately 1,750 voting centres at the 2026 election.^[9] The VEC has struggled to find accessible venues previously, especially for early voting centres (see Section 4.3 in Chapter 4). The Committee therefore does not believe that it would be appropriate to mandate that all voting centres should be accessible. However, the VEC should adopt a long-term goal of universal access. There are legal duties to remove barriers to voting and offer reasonable adjustments for people with disability (see Section 2.3). Taking an accessibility-first approach would see the VEC selecting accessible venues to use as voting centres wherever possible, adopting minimum standards which increase over time and being transparent about exceptions where the VEC has been unable to avoid them.

Ultimately, accessibility-first and universal design approaches involve designing voting for all people—people with disability, people without disability, people new to voting, people whose first language is not English, people with low literacy and so on. They are about factoring the needs of all voters into decisions from the beginning, aiming for full accessibility everywhere and only compromising on this where necessary. These approaches involve aiming for as many voting centres as possible to be accessible, rather than just some voting centres. They involve using the most accessible entrance to the voting centre as the main entrance, rather than creating a main entrance that is not accessible and a separate entrance for people with disability. They involve providing accessibility tools at all voting centres and not just selected venues. Above all, they mean trying to design voting experiences for everybody wherever possible, rather than relegating people with disability to specific venues or processes.

1.4.2A whole-of-journey approach

The VEC should also take a ‘whole-of-journey’ approach to supporting people with disability.^[10] A whole-of-journey approach would consider the entire experience of a voter at an election, not just their experience in the voting centre.

A whole-of-journey approach would include:

• learning that an election is happening
• updating enrolment (if necessary)
• learning about the different options for voting
• learning about the candidates
• for those people voting at a voting centre:
  • travelling to the voting centre (either privately or by public transport)
  • arriving at the centre (including drop-off or parking where relevant)
  • navigating past campaigners
  • queuing
  • entering the voting centre
  • being marked off the electoral roll and receiving ballot papers
  • receiving instructions and having any questions answered
  • casting a vote
  • leaving the voting centre and returning home or going to another destination.

This approach requires considering factors which are not currently considered when selecting voting centres. For example, while the VEC’s current selection criteria look at the distance to public transport stops,^[11] they do not consider whether those are accessible stops (as opposed to, for example, tram stops with large steps) or whether the path from the closest stop is accessible (as opposed to, for example, including a gravel path). These were noted by multiple submitters as important considerations.

The voting journey for some people with disability also involves other people, and their needs must also be taken into account to create a fully accessible experience. Some people may be accompanied by an unpaid support person, who may only be available at certain times or who may be caring for children at the same time as supporting a voter.^[12] Some people may need assistance in the voting compartment, requiring compartments to be wide enough to fit two people (see Section 6.2.1).^[13] Some voters will have guide dogs and need facilities for the dogs to be toileted.^[14] As Judith Abbott from Carers Victoria explained, it is important not to work on assumptions that a person with disability will be alone but to cater for the fact that sometimes the people around the people with disability ‘are actually mission critical to getting where you need to go’.^[15] Factoring in the needs of these people is part of considering all aspects of the journey for people with disability.

The Committee considers that a whole-of-journey approach can highlight aspects of the voting experience for people with disability that might not be considered with other approaches. It is therefore an important part of ensuring that elections are accessible and inclusive.

1.4.3Understanding the diversity of disability

The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 75.3% of people with disability reported a physical condition as their main long-term health condition (e.g. arthritis, back problems, difficulty walking). The remaining 24.7% reported mental or behavioural disorders as their main condition (e.g. autism, anxiety disorders).^[16]

Despite this, there is a tendency in electoral legislation and in the VEC’s practice to focus on support for physical disability. For example, the only accessibility information published about voting centres relates to wheelchair accessibility (see Section 7.6.1). Potential barriers to people with sensory sensitivities are only assessed for dedicated low-sensory voting centres and not for voting centres in general (see Section 4.4.2). The post-election evaluation commissioned by the VEC asks about physical disability but not mental or cognitive disability (see Section 9.5.2).

As Endeavour Foundation explained, focusing on support for physical disabilities:

risks overlooking the considerable proportion of Australians whose disability is cognitive rather than physical. Intellectual disability relates to difficulty learning or understanding things, but it does not mean people can’t learn or understand the voting process with the right supports or that their voting preferences do not matter.

For individuals with intellectual disability, the barriers to voting are not at the entrance—they are inside the voting centre. Clear instructions, easy-read materials, and patient, well-trained staff are as fundamental to their participation as a ramp is to a wheelchair user. Designing accessible voting centres means designing for the full spectrum of disability, not just its most visible forms.^[17]

While reducing barriers to physical access is important for many people with disability, a variety of other barriers were identified through this Inquiry as well. For example, excessive noise and crowding can be a barrier to some neurodivergent people. Complex information can be a barrier to people with dementia. Relying on spoken instructions can be a barrier to Deaf people.

It is also important to understand that every person with disability is different, with a different combination of conditions and different needs. People with disability may also face other barriers (such as age or cultural background) that need to be taken into account (see further discussion in Section 2.2.1).

To make voting as accessible as possible, the diversity and complexity of disability must be recognised when planning, designing and managing voting processes.

1.5 Structure of this report

This report sets out the Committee’s findings from this Inquiry, along with recommendations to the VEC and the Parliament for changes to make voting more inclusive.

Chapter 1 provides background information about this Inquiry and sets out three guiding principles for the VEC’s future efforts to make voting more accessible.

Chapter 2 provides background information about disability in Victoria and the international agreements and legislation that relate to accessibility.

Chapter 3 looks at how the VEC currently considers the needs of voters with disability in its planning and service delivery.

Chapters 4 to 6 explore how the VEC selects, manages and equips voting centres. These chapters analyse the VEC’s current processes and identify changes that could make voting more accessible.

Chapter 7 considers the VEC’s approach to communication and how this could be more accessible, both before voting and inside the voting centre.

Chapter 8 looks at staff training. Getting training right is essential to creating accessible experiences for people with disability.

Finally, Chapter 9 considers how the VEC measures and reports on accessibility. Establishing a robust performance measurement system is important for embedding accessibility into decisions and for holding the VEC to account.