Campaigning FAQs

We campaign to remove barriers that prevent blind and partially sighted people from living the lives they choose. Guide Dogs provide a range of services that support the independence of people with sight loss in the UK. For example, a guide dog can change the life of a person living with sight loss by enabling them to travel independently and with confidence. However, without the right laws and policies in place, this independence and confidence could be undermined. We are here to make sure all people with sight loss can live the life they choose - together we can campaign to make a difference.

We campaign on key issues which prevent people with sight loss, including guide dog owners, from living the lives they choose. This includes making sure children with sight loss have access to the specialist support they need, ensuring local areas are safe and hazard-free for people with vision impairments, and making sure guide dog owners’ legal rights to enter public places with their assistance dog are upheld. You can find out more about our different campaign areas here.   

We wouldn’t be able to campaign without support from the thousands of amazing campaigners who get involved in our work each week. From signing petitions and sharing posts on social media, to writing to their MP or local councillors our campaign supporters help us to drive change.

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We also have a group of Campaign Volunteers, who are important ambassadors for our campaigns in their local areas and help us decide what we will campaign on next. Want to volunteer with us? You can search for roles in your area and if you can't see a campaigning opportunity available, check back in as we update our opportunities regularly.

Thanks to campaigning, assistance dog owners are legally allowed to enter shops, restaurants, taxis and minicabs without discrimination. Our successful campaigns have also secured legislation meaning all buses will need to have audio-visual announcements, helping passengers with sensory impairments navigate bus journeys. We have also successfully campaigned for new regulations to help make new models of quiet cars safer.

We want our campaigns to reflect what’s most important to people with sight loss. To do this, we carry out and commission research to find out key areas of concern and use this evidence to build successful campaigns that influence positive change for people with a vision impairment. We frequently engage with blind and partially sighted people, their families, and anyone who directly supports them to help us understand what matters most to people with sight loss so we can shape our work.

Working with politicians from all parties across the UK is incredibly important to our campaigns to help us make change possible. We organise events such as sensory walks and exhibition stands at party conferences to help them to gain a deeper understanding of the issues that people with sight loss face every day. Through this work and support from our campaign supporters, MPs, AMs, MSPs and MLAs frequently contact key Ministers to raise our campaign issues, set up important debates, ask questions in parliament that require formal answers from the relevant Government, and much more. Together, these steps help to keep Guide Dogs’ campaigns understood, and allow us to move forward, achieving change. The more politicians who understand our campaigns, the greater our chance of success. 

There are lots of different ways you can support Guide Dogs! They all require a little of your time in different ways. Campaigning can mean everything from sharing our campaigns on social media, to signing a petition to a bus company, to emailing or visiting your MP however much time you can spare, you can help effect change for the rights of people with sight loss by supporting our campaigns.

With fundraising, this is all about how you can support Guide Dogs financially, and again, there are many ways you can help.

Finally, volunteering is entirely focused on the time you can give – the activity you do depends on what skills you have, what you enjoy, and how much time you can spare. It could be anything from regularly supporting people with a vision impairment as a My sighted Guide volunteer, to helping us in our offices.

If a premises or service refuses to allow you to make use of their business because of your working guide dog, please contact Guide Line, our information and support line, on 0800 781 1444 or email information@guidedogs.org.uk so we can help advise you on the next steps.