MEDIA RELEASE

Linz, 2 May 2022: In time with the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on 19 May, the TRIPS project consortium is organising the three-part “No Passenger Left Behind” webinar series.

Accessible public transport is a crucial element to facilitate independent living – no matter if you are a person with a disability, a senior citizen or have any other access need. The TRIPS project used a co-design approach, under which public transport users with disabilities and public transport providers developed new design concepts to remove barriers and make public transport more accessible. In the 3rd and final year of the project, these concepts are now being trialed in seven European pilot cities.

Highlighting some of the aspects the work in the TRIPS project has revealed, the upcoming webinars explore:

• 5 May: Creating a Physical & Digital Barrier-Free Public Transport
• 10 May: The relevance of accessible transport post-Covid (with the participation of MEP Stelios Kympouropoulos)
• 23 June: Best practice and pilots for accessible transport solutions

Programmes and registrations: https://aaate.net/2022/04/11/one-project-three-webinars-and-the-high-ambition-of-making-urban-public-transport-accessible/

“The webinar series is a wonderful opportunity to present the work of our pilot cities to the European policy makers and transport operators, showcase what is working on the ground and inform the higher-level policy initiatives to make public transport in Europe accessible, sustainable and future-proof,” says Tally Hatzakis from Trilateral Research and project lead.

The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) traditionally focuses on digital access and inclusion, but with technologies merging and digital tech permeating more and more aspects of our life, public transport needs both physical and digital inclusion and accessibility. We are therefore happy to join in the momentum of GAAD and invite you to participate in the TRIPS webinar series, come with your questions and learn from people’s experience on the ground in removing barriers from public transport.

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About the TRIPS project:

TRIPS stands for “TRansport Innovation for disabled People needs Satisfaction”. The project aims at making public transport more accessible for persons with disabilities, elderly voyagers and really everyone. The consortium brings together pan- European networks of users (ENIL), transport organisations (UITP), assistive technology experts (AAATE) and municipalities to engage in open innovation on mobility. They are supported by design methodology experts (TUE), systems integration experts (TB) and privacy experts (TRI). Building on this expertise, TRIPS will deliver and deploy a Co-design- for-All methodology in 7 pilot cities – Lisbon, Zagreb, Bologna, Cagliari, Brussels, Sofia, Stockholm. More information: https://trips-project.eu/

Beyond the practical work on the ground, the TRIPS project consortium also carried out two large-scale user surveys with the participation of over 500 people with disabilities from across Europe. This resulted in a first list of policy recommendations for making public transport more accessible – in the short, middle and long term. Link to the White Paper with the policy recommendations:

About AAATE:

The Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) is a non profit membership organization and its aim is to advance the knowledge on assistive technology in all its forms and, more in general, to enhance the role technology can have in enabling citizens with functional restrictions to be active, to participate in all realms of life and to have a higher quality of life. The association has institutional and single members in almost all European countries and is part of various international collaboration frameworks, such as the Global Network of AT professional organisations and the ENTELIS network (together with other European umbrella organisations). The association organises every two years a major international conference on Assistive Technology and publishes the journal Technology and Disability.

About the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD):

The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an awareness day focusing on digital access and inclusion for the more than one billion people with disabilities and impairments. It is marked annually on the third Thursday of May: https://accessibility.day/

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