The imperative of co-designing and passenger feedback

Designing accessible bus infrastructure, services and the wider travelling environment requires systematic engagement with disabled users themselves, to ensure their experiences are fully understood and that their needs are reflected and represented in planning, design and delivery. Co-design is an approach to service design where the people who will use a service, particularly disabled people and others with accessibility needs, are involved as active collaborators in identifying the problems and shaping the solutions being developed, rather than being consulted after designs, budgets or processes are already substantially fixed.

Methods for co-design include:

• Workshops with mock-ups, models, or physical prototypes (e.g. mock bus shelters, sample kerb heights, tactile surface samples people can test on-site);
• Accessibility audits led jointly by disabled people and technical staff;
• Advisory panels of disabled users involved throughout a project, not just at consultation stage;
• User journey mapping done together with people who have direct experience of the barriers being addressed.

Many bus operators and local authorities have their own bus user and disabled passenger panels, or they can engage with a range of representative organisations, including:

• The National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat) has its Community of Accessible Transport (CAT) panel, bringing together disabled people and transport stakeholders to inform research, policy and innovation. This insight complements ncat’s wider evidence base, research and resources, which support the transport sector to better understand accessibility barriers and opportunities for improvement. ncat is also currently working on a practical co-production toolkit for the transport sector.⁵³
• The Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) has a panel of over 4,000 disabled people across the UK provides structured feedback to businesses and organisations.⁵⁴
• Designability is a design and innovation organisation that can offer inclusive research, drawing on the experiences of disabled people, and support a collaborative and inclusive human-centred design process.⁵⁵

In addition to involving disabled people in improvement processes, passengers need to have a clear process to provide feedback. To ensure true accountability, information displays and waiting areas must clearly display how passengers can report faults and lodge service complaints. Bus stops and customer apps should provide simple, clear contact routes for passengers to report accessibility faults (such as broken tactile paving, blocked clearways, or non-functioning Audio-Visual displays) directly to the relevant local transport authority or operator, closing the accountability loop. Information should include direct customer service contact details for the operating company, as well as clear signposting to Bus Users UK as the recognised alternative dispute resolution body for passengers whose concerns are unresolved.

References

53. ncat (no date), Removing barriers with inclusive and robust evidence (back to text)

54. Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (no date), Profile of the RiDC Consumer Panel (back to text)

55. Designability (back to text)