The future of transport must be accessible
Earlier this month I co-chaired the first Untapped x Meaningful Business Disability Inclusion Circle session of 2024 on the topic of accessible travel and transport systems. We heard from some of our Circle members who are working in the sphere of accessible travel/transport/tourism and it was encouraging to learn about progress being made in many parts of the world. I’m always buoyed by the sessions as we usually spark some new connections and it’s great to know that the dialogue is going to continue. I hope it leads to fruitful collaboration opportunities for our members!
?Here are my three takeaways from the session:
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Disabled entrepreneurs are leading the way
The saying goes, “nothing about us without us”, and when it comes to innovative solutions to the challenges posed by the world’s often-inaccessible transport systems/methods it’s clear that disabled people with lived experience are driving positive change in this sphere. For example, we heard from Melis BüYüKSAN , founder and managing director of Turkish-based MEDLIS RAMPS , which manufactures portable wheelchair accessible ramps. These innovative ramps are an integral part of the public transport system in Turkey and have also expanded to 21 other countries, ensuring smoother journeys for wheelchair users and people with mobility issues.
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Joined-up thinking and action is needed
Not having fully accessible transport services and systems has a knock-on effect on all areas of life for many disabled people today, especially on employment. It’s clear that we need more strategic, joined-up thinking – and action – from a host of relevant organisations in both urban and rural areas to ensure that homes, workplaces, leisure and culture facilities? - and the transport systems connecting them – are accessible. For example, we heard from Aradhana Lal , senior VP of sustainability and ESG at Lemon Tree Hotels , an Indian hotel chain which employs disabled people, that a lack of accessible public transport options in India adversely impacts the ability of their employees to get to work every day.
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An inclusive mindset is vital
We heard from Rachel Bannon-Godfrey , VP and UN SDG Impact Leader for Stantec , that the global engineering and architecture firm is keen to hear the challenges faced by disabled people when it comes to the design of transportation systems. This takes us straight back to the “nothing about us without us” mantra mentioned earlier, which is vital for true inclusion to occur. The company recently held a webinar on inclusive, accessible and universal design, and is keen to look beyond what building and planning codes stipulate to find the most accessible, inclusive solutions possible. A commitment to make new buildings and infrastructure work for everybody is a great example of an inclusive mindset in action, which is much-needed in the travel and transport sector globally.
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Whilst there’s been a lot of progress in certain cities and regions with regards to accessible travel and transport, it’s clear there’s still a very long way to go. ?It starts with understanding that accessible travel and transport is better for everyone.? It requires a concerted effort, budgets and resources as well as innovative solutions, to make it happen. And disabled people must have the opportunity to input. Collaboration is going to be vital for the future of accessible travel and transport -? and I look forward to tracking the progress of our Meaningful Business Disability Inclusion members as they make strides in this space.
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Below are some inclusive and accessible travel/transport campaigns, apps, websites and solutions, which you might be interested in reading about:
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·????? Rights On Flights, a global campaign for fair and equitable air travel spearheaded by disabled TV presenter and author Sophie Morgan.
·????? TabiFolk, an online community of disabled travellers from around the world created by Josh Grisdale.
·????? Planet Abled, an accessible travel solution and leisure excursion provider for disabled people created by Neha Arora.
·????? GoodMaps, an AI-powered, accessible mapping system for indoor spaces.
·????? Seatrac, an accessible system which enables wheelchair users and those with mobility issues to enter the sea unassisted.
·????? Travel Hands, a London-based NGO which operates a bit like a ‘walking version of uber’ by matching people with visual impairments to a sighted volunteer nearby who walks with the visually impaired same vicinity (a bit like a walking form of uber).
·????? Wheel Map, a site where wheelchair users can log and find wheelchair-accessible places around the world.
·????? Accessible Tourism for All, recommendations for applying the ‘Accessible Tourism for All’ ISO standard.
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Accessibility in the travel space is a HUGE aggravating miss, not least because those with a public sector equality duty in statutory due diligence aren't actually doing the statutory due diligence that they're required to do, exposing themselves on suspicion of frauds of epic proportions in both licensing (25m trips of ATOL licenses issued by the CAA) and procurement (11bn GBP contracts issued by our Cabinet Office, plus others), with parties and counterparties exposed for just going along with it Not only that, our Coastguard has a complaint served in September 2022 STILL open in February 2024 and hardly touched Chief Commercial Officer in Cabinet Office (the one suspected of procurement fraud) has just moved to the DfT (the one suspected of licensing fraud) We've called the police. High Court ruled on material data in EWHC1841 Blank FOI returns for material data were received right in its face Behind the PC in a helmet is a judge in a wig - it should be the easiest prosecution/conviction to make - we need to protect the King's Bench and rule of law lounger-logger.com Realtime identical access for all via sensors devices and IoT SDG10 UV awareness and early intervention at point of risk SDG3