TRIPS innovations include
• A Co-design-for-All methodology developed in collaboration with disabled users, tested and accepted by both transport experts and users alike, delivered as a MOOC and a toolset.
• The TRIPS Mobility Divide Index (MDI) a user-centric set of indicators of accessibility to guide research, policy making, transport and urban planning. Available as a white paper and a mobile app and a webapp dashboard.
• The Lecco Declaration for Accessible and Inclusive Public Transport.
TRIPS achieved Impact
Instrumental Impacts: By bringing together disabled users with representatives from transport, assistive and digital technologies sectors in a co-design process, we have reframed the issue of accessibility systemically, from a problem-solving issue to an innovation opportunity. The TRIPS methodology creates a common ground and a set of practical innovation strategies and approaches to designing new intuitive mobility systems that are accessible for all.
Capacity Building Impact: By hosting the MOOC on a popular general purpose online teaching platform (Coursera) as well as the UITP educational platform, we have created a framework for long lasting capacity building impact.
Economic and Societal Impact: Our survey findings have resulted in a set of recommendations and white papers, designed to inform investment in infrastructure and its design. We have developed business cases and signed collaboration MoU’s by the transport ecosystem in all our partner cities. We have proposed the establishment of a European Accessibility Observatory to crowdsource accessibility auditing data, based on the MDI app, and turn them into actionable information for transport operators and municipalities in a transparent way. We have also proposed the establishment of a European Accessibility Design Centre, a network of hubs that can provide UX design assistance in the form of consultancy to transport (and other) organizations lacking internal expertise to undertake accessibility initiatives from a co-design approach to avoid costly mistakes in the design and implementation of solutions and set priorities that matter to persons with disabilities. Finally, the innovation roadmap proposes a set of measures for lifting the institutional barriers (financial, operational etc.) that hinder the integration of user-centric innovations into business-as-usual operations. In addition, the Lecco Declaration is still being promoted and signed with the aim to have its principles publicly endorsed by a broad range of key organisations.
Conceptual Impact: TRIPS has framed accessibility as a “a door-to-door" issue and encouraging integrated management of transport and urban planning, a position supported by UITP and ELTIS. The Mobility Divide Index (MDI) and the associated app reframes how we audit the accessibility of cities for people with and without disability along six important dimensions (comfort, convenience, safety, journey duration, affordability, autonomy). We have also made conceptual and systemic links to the need to close the digital divide as a means to reduce the mobility divide for people with disabilities.
Academic Impact: The consortium has contributed academic training material (the MOOC) to enable future designers and transport practitioners to co-design with disabled citizens. We have also produced a set of research publications, conference, and position papers.
