Results of an International Survey on Accessible Transportation and Mobility published
The Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments (GAATEs) established a Transportation Committee in 2013. The first tasks of the new committee were to ask people with disabilities around the world to identify their problems with day to day mobility, to establish the priorities for improvement and to focus on the issues that need most urgent attention and how GAATES can help to address them.
As a first step, the GAATEs Transportation Committee distributed a worldwide survey in relation to transport and mobility and received responses from 257 people, representing 39 countries from 6 continents.
76% of respondents had personal experience of disability; 60% described their location as “mainly urban”; 28% described it as “suburban or township” and 10% as “mainly rural”.
The results of the survey identified the two biggest barriers as inaccessible public transport vehicles (47% of respondents) and poor staff attitudes from drivers and other transport staff (35% of respondents). The results also identified that the lack of availability of public transport in general, accessibility within public areas and the lack of accessible information as barriers to accessible public transport.
The top priorities identified in the survey were:
- Better attitude and staff awareness/need for training
- Legislative support and control mechanisms/enforcement and monitoring of access improvements
- More attention to making the pedestrian environment accessible
- More accessible public transport (buses in Particular)
Further information and the results of the survey including a presentation of the findings are available on the GAATEs website.
Alternatively, If you would like further information on accessible public transport, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01-4151285 or [email protected].
