Due to travel restrictions and home confinement, a hybrid model of work and learning emerged in many countries, which allowed or sometimes forced many people to work or learn from home. While the facilitation of working and studying from home and remotely has long been a request from the disability community for easier integration in work life and higher education, it should not be used as excuse to put into question the need of ensuring the accessibility of public transport. Because the lack of accessible transport takes away the choice and the possibility for independent living.

In this webinar, we propose to explore what Covid changed for travelers with disabilities in using public transport. If barriers increased or decreased, if they remain the same, or if new barriers emerged, what currently is being done to address those barriers and what policy initiatives are the best leverage to make urban public transport more accessible. We will close with presenting practical solutions for addressing barriers to accessible transport, currently piloted in Lisbon, Zagreb, Bologna, Cagliari, Brussels, Sofia, and Stockholm.

Programme:

• David Banes, Access & Inclusions, TRIPS Consortium
  • Setting the scene: what changed with Covid, why is accessible transport still important?

• MEP Stelios Kympouropoulos: view from a policy maker
  • What is the place of accessibility in the current transport policy discussions? What do policy makers need from projects such as TRIPS to better integrate accessibility as fundamental principle?

• Kamil Goungor, ENIL, TRIPS Consortium
  • What does reality look like right now for travelers with disabilities? What we have learned from TRIPS and why its deliverables are needed now more than ever?

• Anne-Laure Le Merre, UITP, TRIPS Consortium
  • How are transport providers dealing with accessibility requests right now? What is planned in terms of investments in the near future?

• Elvia Vasconcelos, TUE, TRIPS Consortium:
  • Overview of 7 piloted solutions in TRIPS

• Q&A

• David Banes
  • Closing: what TRIPS contributes to addressing the issue and what we want participants to do and take home with.

Join us on 10 May, 3 pm CEST: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82642576299