UK: Seven technology projects which aim to assist passengers with disabilities have been awarded a total of £600 000 of government funding to support development.
- Accessibility Evaluation Survey for Stations is a tool to help people responsible for station accessibility to identify problems and prioritise improvements.
- Less Visible Impairments will study how to increase frontline staff’s understanding of the difficulties faced by passengers with hidden disabilities, such as dementia.
- Rail4All is an app to help station staff prioritise requests from disabled passengers and notify the user that their request for support has been received.
- Accessible Journey Pocket Assistant is a journey planner giving passengers bespoke guidance for every step of their trip.
- Nodality is a website to provide disabled passengers and carers with the information they need to understand how accessible a particular station is.
- Signly is an app that improves communication and passenger experience for people who use sign language.
- Aubin is app designed to improve rail journeys for people with autism by using stress related preferences, rather than time or cost, to help the user reach their destination.
The funding was awarded through an innovation competition run by the Rail Safety & Standards Board. ‘These ideas will help achieve our aim of improving overall access to the railways for disabled people and contribute to a better, safer railway’, said RSSB Chief Executive Mark Phillips on June 26.
