Accessibility is better for everyone
Sorry - meant to send this morning!
Disabled passengers are only disabled when don’t have “special needs”. They just have needs that are less forgivable to ignore.
Sandra Witzel made the point in our podcast that her disability changes depending on the city. In Amsterdam she feels less disabled because the place is walkable and the trams work. But on many rail routes, she’s disabled by the need to pre-book.
That’s what the “social model of disability” gets at. Anyone who isn’t the ‘reference able-bodied man’ (someone like me) will find transport harder to access.
The result is that fixes for disabled people are often just better design, for everyone.
👉 You can hear my conversation with Sandra Witzel here.
You can subscribe to The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts here:
and at Spotify here:
Take Action
If you’re a leader
Make sure new projects, products and services aren’t just tested on able-bodied men (who are often the people lying around). Make sure they’re tested on people who’d find them hard to use. That’s not the same as writing an EQIA.
If you’re a team member
Pick one thing you’re designing (a stop, a timetable, a ticketing flow, a station sign). Ask a disabled user to try it cold, without explanations - even just as a mock-up or thought experiment. Watch where they get stuck.