Improving Access to Public Transport for All.

SEStran is pleased to announce a new £150,000 fund that seeks to identify and understand in detail the challenges faced by disabled people when traveling, exploring the extent to which these affect disabled people’s travel plans and their choice of mode of transport. The project aims to develop a door to door journey planning solution that helps alleviate these barriers and makes it easier for people to use public transport.

SEStran is looking to mobile application developers and tech companies of any size to develop a simple, engaging and easy to understand interface that has an innovative approach to the use of visual, audio and physical (such as vibration) elements to communicate with the users.

The project will look to develop a mobile solution that:

• benefits people with several disabilities, for example, sight impairment, hearing impairment, mobility issues, and dementia
• incorporate journey planning and wayfinding features
• allow third parties (such as family, emergency services and transport providers) to track the user in case of difficulty
• allow the user to ask third parties for help
• include multi-modal transport options
• adapt the user interface depending on disability

This competition is funded by the Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund. In the first phase, up to 5 research and development contracts of up to £30,000 each will be awarded to companies to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the proposed solution.

SEStran expects to fund up to 5 projects, if you are interested in applying and for more information please click here.

The slides from the information event held in Edinburgh on the 7th of December can be downloaded here. Thistle Assistant COSLA Info