SEND reform gaps and digital inaccessibility in transport highlighted by RNIB after King’s Speech

The charity welcomed reforms on SEND education and transport, but identified areas that still need to be focused on to create equity for blind and partially sighted people

4 min read

Young girl with glasses smiling in a classroom setting

Getty/FG Trade

Lucy Miller

18 May 2026

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has welcomed the Government’s plans on specials needs education and accessible transport, but has highlighted gaps in proposed legislation brought forward in the King’s Speech on Wednesday (13 May).

The Government unveiled plans to introduce bills on special educational needs and developments (SEND), air travel and railways in its next parliamentary session, which has now begun.

The Education for All Bill focuses on SEND reform, and an investment of more than £4 billion will be made in the area over the next three years, the Government said.

Children with SEND perform better in mainstream than in special schools and research shows that the gap between GCSE results of children in this group and their peers without SEND has not “meaningfully narrowed” over the past six years, the Government said.

Plans include creating “tens of thousands” of places within inclusions bases in mainstream settings, making buildings more accessible, and creating new special school places.

A new national offer will wrap professionals including educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, and occupational therapists around mainstream settings, the bill said.

The bill aims to provide early support to children with SEND by legislating to require settings to produce individual support plans, enable local support by making mainstream settings more inclusive, and ensure staff in every nursery, school, and college receive training on SEND and inclusion.

It also requires that schools pool a portion of their funding for SEND, with the aim of improving fairness across the country.

The bill also seeks to “end the postcode lottery” for children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans, by introducing a new national template.

Education settings will be required to publish an inclusion strategy in order to remove barriers to education, and will also be held to account on how well they strengthen their inclusive practice.

Partnerships will also be utilised to ensure that support is shared across settings, including in mainstream schools.

The RNIB has welcomed the bill, but noted areas of provision that still need to be prioritised.

Eleanor Thompson, the RNIB’s director of policy, campaigns and social action, said: “We share the ambition for an inclusive education system, where children with vision impairment have the specialist support to learn alongside their peers in their local community.”

She emphasised: “To achieve this, action will need to be taken to provide mainstream schools with enough specialist teachers, habilitation and support staff to support children with vision impairment.”

More focus needed on digital inaccessibility in transport

The RNIB has long campaigned for more accessible public transport for blind and partially sighted people, including successfully working to keep ticket offices open at railway stations.

The Railways and Passenger Benefits Bill sets out the details of the proposed Great British Railways (GBR) service, and promises to set up a ‘Passenger Watchdog’ to set consumer standards for the railways and investigate poor service.

An independent rail ombudsman service, to resolve disputes between passengers and operators, will also be created.

This means passengers will “have an independent voice fighting their corner and holding GBR to account,” the Government said.

The Civil Aviation Bill includes additional consumer enforcement powers for the Civil Aviation Authority, with the aim of ensuring people feel their rights are being protected when they fly.

Aviation consumer rights reform will strengthen protections for passengers, including changes to compensation for damaged or lost mobility aids.

The Draft Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Bill aims to remove barriers for disabled passengers, with a promise to engage views from a range of stakeholders in order to “create the strongest legislation possible.”

The bill promises to “deliver more accessible services for disabled passengers, by strengthening existing protections and removing barriers to travel, helping ensure people who rely most on taxis and private hire vehicles are not left behind.”

It also aims to create consistency in taxi and private hire travel across the country.

Thompson emphasised that, despite positive steps, the frequent inaccessibility of digital services remains a problem for blind and partially sighted people.

“The accessibility of journeys is a key issue affecting blind and partially sighted people and it is good to see efforts to address this through bills related to taxis, trains and air travel,” Thompson said.

She added: “Plans to introduce a new Passenger Watchdog, as well as to simplify ticketing, could boost independent rail travel for people with sight loss. But many digital services remain inaccessible – so the ability to purchase tickets from staff at fixed, known locations remains essential.”