Guide Dogs’ manifesto for the 2026 Senedd election

Guide Dogs’ ambition is a future where every person with sight loss can live the life they choose.

Our manifesto for the 2026 Senedd election sets out actions the next Welsh government can take to improve the lives of people with sight loss.

Read the manifesto in Welsh.

Our key asks for the next Welsh government

1. Introduce measures to tackle pavement parking.
2. Update guidance and standards to make sure our streets are safe and accessible for all.
3. Highlight that private e-scooters are illegal on public roads.
4. Ensure that the views and needs of people with a vision impairment are considered as part of the strategy Travel for All: improving access and inclusion across transport in Wales.
5. Strengthen the law to stop guide dog owners being turned away from taxis, private hire vehicles, businesses and services, and ensure staff know the legal rights of guide dog owners.
6. Ensure all children and young people with a vision impairment can access specialist educational support in their chosen language when they need it.

Tackle pavement parking

Parking on pavements is unsafe and unfair. 81% of people with sight loss said that reducing obstacles on pavements and street clutter was important to improving their quality of life.

Yet in Wales it is a daily occurrence because local councils don’t have the powers they need to deal with the issue. Four out of five blind and partially sighted people said that pavement parking makes it difficult to walk on the pavement at least once a week. Almost 95% of people with sight loss have been forced to walk in the road by vehicles blocking the pavement, making simple day to day journeys dangerous or potentially impossible.

Local councils in Scotland and London already have the power to act on pavement parking. Early in 2026, the UK Government announced new plans to tackle dangerous pavement parking in England. This will leave Wales as the only country in Great Britain which does not have the power to tackle dangerous pavement parking.

How your future MS can help:

• Write to the Welsh Government and request they introduce measures to tackle pavement parking.

Prioritise street safety

Clear footways with consistent features such as tactile paving are essential for people with sight loss to get out and about safely. However, our streets are becoming less accessible as local councils roll out different approaches to street design, including:

• Continuous footways where the road crossing is level to the pavement, encouraging pedestrians and vehicles to mix.
• Shared pedestrian and cycle routes, where cyclists and pedestrians use the same path/pavement.
• Bus stop borders where pedestrians have to cross a cycle track to get from the pavement to the bus stop and vice versa.

The design of the public realm is directly influenced by the Active Travel Act Guidance, the technical document for planning, designing, and delivering walking, wheeling, and cycling. This must reflect the hierarchy set out in the Highway Code which puts the safety of pedestrians first, followed by cyclists and drivers.

How your future MS can help:

• Ensure that safety and accessibility is a priority and that the needs of all pedestrians, including those with a vision impairment, are given a higher priority than those of cyclists or car drivers.
• Ensure engagement with residents with a vision impairment about proposed active travel routes is inclusive, meaningful, and effective, and that their views are considered from the start.

Manage e-scooters and e-bikes

Our service users regularly report problems with fast, almost-silent e-scooters being ridden anti-socially on pavements, and e-bikes on footways and in pedestrian-only locations.

How your future MS can help:

• Support a public information campaign highlighting the illegal use of e-scooters, lead on a joined-up approach on enforcement, and prohibit the sale of unregulated and untested e-scooters.

Ensure accessible travel

The Welsh Government is committed to promoting inclusive travel and improving access, reflected in five key principles to transform transport networks. These include ensuring people feel safe and welcome, improving accessibility, involving disabled people in design decisions, and embedding lasting change across all modes of transport.

Transport operators will work to new standards and practical guidance developed with disabled people, while customer-facing staff across rail, bus, and other services will undertake regular training on equality issues including disability awareness.

How your future MS can help:

• Ensure that the views and needs of people with a vision impairment are considered as part of Travel for All: improving access and inclusion across transport in Wales, and that the aims and principles of the strategy are put into practice in their constituency.

Open doors for guide dog owners

Guide dogs are not pets or accessories. Along with other types of assistance dog, guide dogs are essential for many people to live their lives independently. However, almost 90% of guide dog owners have been refused access to a business or service, such as shops or taxis. The fear of these refusals can stop people from getting out and about with confidence.

While in most cases refusing a working guide or other assistance dog is likely to be unlawful, the reality is that it is extremely difficult for guide dog owners to take action when refusals happen.

Guide Dogs Cymru welcomes the Welsh Government’s production of good practice films for drivers of taxi and private hire vehicles when offering a service to people with a vision impairment. This training will be shared with local authorities but will not be mandatory.

How your future MS can help:

• Make disability equality and awareness training mandatory for all taxi and public hire vehicle drivers.
• Review licensing legislation to explore how local councils can be empowered to act when businesses and other service providers refuse access to guide dogs.

Improve support for children and young people

Children and young people with a vision impairment face a unique set of challenges in their early development and education, which puts them at a disadvantage compared to their sighted peers. Ensuring children and young people can access the high-quality specialist support they need, when they need it, is crucial to empowering them to reach their full potential and to live independently in later life.

However, an overstretched and underfunded specialist workforce means that many families face a postcode lottery in accessing support with some local authorities not employing their own habilitation specialists. Also, children and young people in Welsh medium schools, who use braille, face additional disadvantage as the specialists who teach and support them are not always fluent in reading and writing Welsh braille.

How your future MS can help:

• Prioritise the provision and funding of life-changing services for children and young people with a vision impairment, so they can consistently access the support they need, when they need it.
• Deliver a workforce strategy which addresses the challenges around recruitment, training, and retention in the specialist workforce to ensure every child with vision impairment can access appropriate support.
• Address the issue of specialist provision being available in Welsh.