Overview of the Accessible Travel Framework
The Accessible Travel Framework was developed to work alongside (1) the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the United Kingdom in 2009, and (2) the National Transport Strategy (NTS), specifically the pillar focussing on reducing inequality.
These two documents underscore the standard of rights and treatment of disabled people and provide a strategy to remove barriers to accessing and using (public transport) services, as well as improve the overall travel experiences. Thus, the disabled people should be able to (1) make successful door-to-door journeys; (2) easily access help and support, when necessary; (3) obtain and use accessible information to plan their journey; (4) travel comfortably and safely; (5) complete their journeys successfully and be involved in future design and improvement of services, infrastructure, and broader transport policies. These aims are collated into three main outcomes for transport accessibility:
- More disabled people make successful door-to-door journeys, more often
- Disabled people feel comfortable and safe using public transport
- Everyone involved in delivering transport information, services and infrastructure will help to enable disabled people to travel
The fourth outcome, Disabled people are involved in the design, development and improvement of transport policies, services and infrastructure, is still developing and there is currently no measurement for this activity. As part of the wider engagement process with disabled people, one of the aims is to develop measures for this indicator and start collecting information.