We’re happy to invite our readers to listen to our first podcast on the “Mobiele Rateltikker” in Antwerp. The short audio-reportage collects Mathias’ experience related with the INDIMO re-design process in the Antwerp co-creation community. This podcast has been recorded by a fully blind end-user involved in the testing, re-design and implementation of the “Mobiele rateltikker” in the Antwerp pilot site.

You can listen to the whole series of “Voiceover in Zicht” podcasts from our co-creation community member Mathias Vermincksel on his Anchor.fm channel.

The podcast is also available on:

https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/voiceover-in-zicht/id1568922407

https://podcasts.google.com/search/voiceover%20in%20zicht

Read more about our user-centered activities in the pilot sites, involving all our target users:

Co-creation community

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On the 10th and 11th of June 2022, INDIMO was present at the EPF conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, where our colleague Katrhryn Bulanowski (EPF) presented our INDIMO tools in the framework  of the topic “Digital transition in public transport – opportunities and points of concern”. The conference brought together a relevant audience comprising regional and national passenger organisations, higher-level authorities, as well as digital transport operators, all of them within the scope of the INDIMO target groups.

Our partner Ms. Kathryn Bulanowski from EPF presented the INDIMO tools and asked questions through slido to interact with the audience and gather input on the tools and more specifically, on the SPET – Service policy evaluation tool. In general, the participants saw the value of the research, and an overall positive feedback was collected. A couple of NGOs representatives thought the SPET tool is better suited for public transport operators, yet NGOs can use it as tool for cross-engaging with them. Several participants were already aware of the growing shift to digitalisation and are often confronted with the related challenges and barriers. A few NGOs, policymakers, and transport providers mentioned that INDIMO results and tools will be useful input for their projects and expressed interest in following our activities and attending our future workshops and events.

The presentation is available for download here below:EPF conference presentation

Read more about our user-centered activities in the pilot sites’, involving all our target users:

Co-creation communit
Community of practice

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We are organizing a Design Hackathon within the INDIMO developers and operators community! The Berlin Design Hackathon will take place in parallel during our next project Consortium Meeting in Berlin on the 11th and 12th of May 2022.

Developers, operators and all participants will be involved in creative sessions, starting from the collaborative identification of the challenge and a discussion to select the priorities. Soon after participants will work in separated teams to develop solutions. On the 2nd day solutions will be presented and voted by all other teams members.

The COP related event will be structured in the following way:

Day 1 – 11.45-12.45 CEST

• Challenge creation (30 min) | Group activity in 3-4 groups
• Challenge selection (30 min) | Plenary session
• Co-creation of solutions | (self-organised) 3-4 teams working in parallel in separated areas during the afternoon, including online participation

Day 2 – 13.45-14.45 CEST

• Presentation of Solutions (30 min): Developers/operators mixed teams introduce solutions in a plenary session
• Voting session (15 minutes) | Plenary session
• Award winning team (15 minutes) | Winners declaration and wrap-up

More details about the adopted design thinking approach will be shared via email to registered participants in the forthcoming days. Due to venue availability, the number of participants will be limited.

First come first served, register soon!

Updates and details will be shared via email to registered participants

For more information  contact Floridea di Ciommo at floridea.diciommo@cambiamo.net

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INDIMO’s second year public event titled “Inclusive digital mobility solutions: an overview of INDIMO’s user-centric redesign process” took place online on 25 March. This years’ event sought to shed light on the results collected in the second year of the project, focusing on the implementation of the INDIMO tools and how the INDIMO pilots made use of them for redesigning a more inclusive and accessible service.

The event counted with INDIMO project partners and special external invitees representing target-groups, policymakers, operators, sister projects, and developers of digital mobility services, who participated in a panel session to discuss the process of designing more inclusive and accessible digital mobility solutions.

Check below the complete recording and presentations.

Agenda

00:00:00 Welcome and introduction to the webinar – Imre Keserü

00:05:19 Introduction to the INDIMO project – Imre Keserü

00:16:50 Co-creation of inclusive digital mobility solutions – Erzebet Foldesi, Former board member and vicepresident of the European Disability Forum

00:29:48 How inclusion and accessibility is addressed by SHOTL in the development and operation of services and software – Joshua Biondi – Business developer, SHOTL

00:42:50 Bringing end users and developers around the same table: lessons learnt while redesigning inclusive mobility services with the INDIMO tools Sabina Giorgi – Project manager, Deep Blue (DBL)

01:02:00 Panel discussion “designing more inclusive and accessible digital mobility solutions”. (Moderates Pedro Homem de Gouveia – POLIS Network).

‒ Erzebet Foldesi.

‒ Joshua Biondi – SHOTL

‒ Peter-Jan Vandenberghe – Project engineer, Imec/
Alexandre Segura – Coopcycle cooperative developer, INDIMO partners
developers

‒ Bart Vermandere – Accessibility expert city of Ghent

For more information  contact Daniel Herrera dherrera@polisnetwork.eu, and Imre Keserü Imre.Keseru@vub.be

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The INDIMO project puts the needs of vulnerable transport users at the center of its action, aiming at extending the benefits of digital mobility solutions to everyone. To achieve this, the project adopts an approach based on the principles of co-creation and on the structured cooperation of users, developers, operators, and policymakers.

The second year public event of INDIMO titled “Inclusive digital mobility solutions: an overview of INDIMO’s user-centric redesign process” will take place online on 25 March, from 10.00 to 11.45 CET, and will shed light on the results collected in the second year of the project, focusing on the implementation of the INDIMO tools and how the INDIMO pilots made use of them for redesigning a more inclusive and accessible service.

INDIMO project partners and special external invitees representing target-groups, policymakers, operators, sister projects, and developers of digital mobility services will participate in a panel session to discuss the process of designing more inclusive and accessible digital mobility solutions.

Check our agenda here

Register to the event here

Stay tuned for updates on speakers!

For more information  contact Daniel Herrera dherrera@polisnetwork.eu, and Imre Keserü Imre.Keseru@vub.be

The post Join the second INDIMO public event “Inclusive digital mobility solutions: an overview of INDIMO’s user-centric redesign process” – 25th March appeared first on Indimo Project.

Next stop: a transport system accessible for all

Once known for its matchstick industry, the small Swedish city of Jönköping has another claim to fame. It is one of the most accessible cities in Europe for people with disabilities. The winner of the 2021 Access City Award, Jönköping was recognised for its inclusive and universal bottom-up approach. Working closely with disability organisations, city officials rolled out a wide range of initiatives to make buildings, products and environments accessible to as many people as possible.

City-wide improvements include tactile maps and signage, audio descriptions, tactile paving, easy to read facilities, accessible pavements and barrier-free wheelchair access. From the concert hall to the matchstick museum (one of only three in the world), Jönköping’s attractions, shops, public buildings and infrastructure meet the long list of accessibility criteria.

Indeed, Jönköping is one of many examples of European cities that are friendly to people with disabilities. And with one in five Europeans living with some form of disability, city actions are proving indispensable in order to cater to a growing need for accessibility.

Making it easier to move around

To rise to the challenge of universal accessibility, cities can benefit from innovative technologies that promote a barrier-free and inclusive society. Solutions may involve the use of augmented reality, wearables and artificial intelligence. These are just some of the smart tech solutions that scientists are co-designing together with disabled persons in line with the EU’s Urban Mobility Framework.

Transportation researchers in the Netherlands recently made an important discovery by surveying disabled commuters. They learned that the single most popular item in demand amongst users with different types of disability would be a simple, smart information tool. Imagine a special version of Alexa for travel – an interactive accessible journey planner that would greatly improve people’s mobility and willingness to travel.

The researchers, who are working closely with a Europe-wide network of disabled citizens and are supported by the TRIPS project, are drawing on this finding to develop and test mobility solution models.

According to Kristina Andersen, Assistant Professor at the Future Everyday cluster of the Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology, a smart planner is needed to provide accurate information on the accessibility of transport. It could include, for example, the availability of seats on the next bus or whether certain accessibility infrastructure is “out of order”. The smart planner would provide this information in multiple ways – sign language, audio, lip-reading – as well as be integrated with smart glasses. It would also be free to use and not require registration.

‘Poor access to public transport means people are stopped from accessing job opportunities, education, social and leisure activities and other services,’ explained Andersen.

By focusing on the experience and needs of disabled people, we address a wide variety of barriers such as age, health, or language in current urban transport systems.

To showcase how such co-designed mobility solutions can provide inclusive urban transport for all, TRIPS is rolling out case studies in seven pilot cities: Brussels, Bologna, Cagliari, Lisbon, Sofia, Stockholm and Zagreb.

By inviting those with disabilities to highlight the problems they face in using public transport and empowering them to co-design solutions through brainstorming with experts, Andersen and her team hope to address the most serious risk facing people with disabilities: that of social exclusion.

‘By focusing on the experience and needs of disabled people, we can address a wide variety of barriers such as age, health or language in current urban transport systems,’ said Andersen.

All of this information is not just helping with new innovative services, but also sheds light on what’s needed when designing future transport systems.

Leveraging digital technologies

The user perspective is important when designing and testing mobility solutions for persons with disabilities.

In this context, researchers from the MOBI Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) are conducting a pilot study in Antwerp. They are testing a new method to assist visually impaired people at pedestrian crossings by sending audio and vibrating messages to their smartphones, so they can safely cross the road.

‘In most cities, only a select few traffic lights have pedestrian signs with audible signals,’ said Assistant Professor Imre Keseru, who is the lead researcher on the INDIMO project. ‘Often, these get installed on demand and cause complaints from local residents due to the noise produced. They are not always reliable and can malfunction. Therefore, more often than not, blind people have to trust in their own hearing to make sure the pedestrian light is definitely switched to green.’

Keseru also noted that until recently, digital mobility solutions were mainly developed to address the needs of average users, leading to the exclusion of specific groups with very specific needs.

Additionally, ‘while significant achievements have been made mainly in terms of improving the physical accessibility of transport, digital accessibility and inclusion have not been fully addressed,’ said Keseru.

INDIMO researchers are tackling this issue, working with policymakers, tech developers, transportation operators and persons with disabilities. They have created a toolbox featuring universal design principles that include accessibility standards for transport services, plus cybersecurity and privacy guidelines to encourage more accessible and inclusive digital mobility solutions for all.

While significant achievements have been made, mainly in terms of improving the physical accessibility of transport, digital accessibility and inclusion have not been fully addressed.

While the first version of this toolbox is being tested in Antwerp with the intelligent traffic light system, four additional pilot projects (in Spain, Italy, Germany and Israel) are exploring innovative solutions such as on-demand ride sharing in tandem with multimodal route planning.

What all research projects have in common is a call for better digital services to aid disabled users’ mobility and overall quality of life. They also highlight the need for better digital education and tools to enhance social inclusion for those at risk.

Online holiday booking site for travellers with a disability

Planning a holiday or business-related travel is usually more challenging for those with disabilities, who may worry about whether their accommodation will have access ramps for wheelchairs or information in braille, for example.

A unique online booking system for accessible accommodation may help solve this problem. Developed by a Swedish father whose son suffers from a muscle disease and needs a wheelchair when travelling, Handiscover aims to simplify the search for special accommodation. Simply put, it’s a community-based holiday accommodation-booking website with a unique classification system that allows users to search based on their level of mobility.

‘We take into account issues like the number of stairs, distance to the parking space, the width of doors,’ said Sebastien Archambeaud. ‘This information makes it easier to choose where to stay.’

Building on Handiscover, he has also launched a secondary website to assist hotels, retail shops and other businesses to better understand accessibility and disability through education workshops.

70% of disabilities aren’t visible. We tend to associate disability with a wheelchair, but don’t forget the visually and hearing impaired.

‘With half of the 65+ age group having some form of disability, and 70% of all disabilities not visible, it’s important not to associate disability with a wheelchair,’ noted Archambeaud. ‘Let’s not forget the visually and hearing impaired.’

By placing technology at the heart of building and revamping our cities and transportation systems, digital technology and innovation now have the potential to make life easier for people with disabilities.

The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

Europe’s most accessible city for disabled persons

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On 11th March 2021 INDIMO held its first public event titled “What do users want? A reality check on needs, capabilities, and constraints towards inclusive digital mobility services”. The purpose of the event was to shed light on the results collected in the first year of the project, focusing on the investigation of preferences, perceived barriers, and needs of vulnerable users when they use digital mobility services and applications.

To be truly sustainable digital urban mobility options must be accessible for a broad range of users. To tackle this critical concern, the INDIMO project puts the needs of vulnerable transport users at the center of its action. By adopting an approach based on the principles of co-creation and on the structured cooperation of users, developers, operators, and policymakers, the project seeks to extend the benefits of digital mobility solutions to everyone.

Opening session

Eighty-one (81) people connected to the event, which was moderated by Imre Keserü, the coordinator of the INDIMO project (VUB) who outlined the project objectives, emphasizing that the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated how important digital technologies are for the mobility of people, for example to purchase or book tickets contactless.

At the same time, he warned that relying solely on digital technologies can also lead to the exclusion of the millions of Europeans who lack digital skills or access to the internet.

This concern is at the heart of the INDIMO project’s research into avenues for expanding the benefit of digital mobility solutions. For developers and operators of digital mobility services as well as policy makers, the project will create guidelines which aim is to contribute to an inclusive digitalization of mobility.

After the introduction Victoire Champenois, who represented DG MOVE (European Commission), emphasized that one of the key objectives of the European Union’s new Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy is the enhancement and facilitation of multimodality for passengers through digital services.

She stressed that in order to foster this digital transition three main challenges need to be addressed:

• the lack of a commercial framework for re-selling mobility products;
• the difficulty of ensuring multimodal digital services do not adopt anti-competitive practices;
• the struggle to ensure that multimodal digital services support transport sustainability and accessibility objectives.

The European Commission will support this process through legislation addressing multimodal passenger rights, the Digital Markets Act and the European Accessibility Act. These initiatives are in harmony with INDIMO’s aim to make multimodal travel more accessible and easier-to-use for all including those at risk of exclusion.

Open the European Accessibility Act

Panel discussions

During the webinar, INDIMO project partners representing pilot cities, developers of digital mobility services and vulnerable users’ associations showcased the project’s methodology and initial findings. Participants engaged in the discussion by replying through polls and posing questions to the panelists.

Project partners Michelle Specktor from Technion, Floridea Di Ciommo from cambiaMO and Wim Vanobberghen from IMEC outlined the initial findings from the  project’s inaugural research into understanding users’ needs and the capacity to integrate these into the digital transport system.

They explained how this initial research established the foundation for INDIMO’s methodology: defining user requirements for existing and emerging mobility services and vulnerable to exclusion groups. In this part the project engaged with policy makers, developers and operators.

Focusing on users’ needs, Floridea Di Ciommo oversaw the fieldwork with users and non-users. Through a qualitative data approach, 95 semi-structured interviews were conducted covering the five pilots to identify capabilities and requirements. Users’ needs were identified in relation to space, time and human contact categories. In transport space and time are quite well know but the project identified the importance of human contact. For many users human contact is an important requirement. INDIMO assesses different characteristics for each demographic profile. This provided a “cloud of capabilities” – the most important were help, autonomy, digital and mobility. “People are asking help for using new digital mobility services”, Floridea di Ciommo stated. As for the “cloud of requirements”, it emerged that the most important one is the digital interface together with user’s information.

Some examples of digital limitations were compiled for the pilot in Madrid. For instance, it was found that some people were using digital devices for communication or entertainment purposes, yet they had an outdated digital tool or limited data or connectivity. Moreover, they desired the use of some analogue tools or the possibility to pay in cash.

Ability to use the digital services were also highlighted as a concern. It emerged that senior citizens who were able to use apps for communication (such as WhatsApp or Facebook for instance) could not use other digital services or digital delivery services. “We need to define training tools to empower them”, Floridea said. In addition, there is a gender divide within digital mobility as digital apps are individualistic-oriented so they don’t take into account the full range of needs of users.

Wim Vanobberghen from IMEC outlined user requirements, personas and journey maps. He explained how the project created personas and user journey maps to make the needs of the different users groups more tangible.  Five different profiles were selected according to user characteristics. The requirements were turned into a story about a person – a persona– for example young mother in a neighborhood with lack of transport and with the car taken by her husband. The personal stories highlight the need for a flexible service that takes into consideration the needs of parents and children. Focusing only on the development of a good app is insufficient. The user requirements, personas and journey maps bring people to real life.

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion with representatives from different stakeholders:  Martino Correggiari, La Pajara, Erzsébet Földesi, Budapest Association of Persons with Physical Disability, Dr. Galit Wellner, The NB School of Design & Tel Aviv University; Ms. Kaatje Boury, IMEC, Victoire Champenois, European Commission, DG MOVE.

To watch or listen again to the webinar, please click on the button below.

Event recording Event Presentations

Gallery

Background

The INDIMO project aims to break the barriers that people face in accessing digitally interconnected transport systems. INDIMO wants to expand the use of existing and emerging digital mobility services to populations that are currently excluded due to physical, cognitive or socio-economic barriers.

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The first public event of INDIMO titled “What do users want? A reality check on needs, capabilities, and constraints towards inclusive digital mobility services” will take place online on 11th March 2021, from 10.00 to 11.30 CET and will shed light on the results collected in the first year of the project, focusing on the investigation of preferences, perceived barriers, and needs of vulnerable users when they use digital mobility services and applications.

The INDIMO project puts the needs of vulnerable transport users at the center of its action, aiming at extending the benefits of digital mobility solutions to everyone. To achieve this, the project adopts an approach based on the principles of co-creation and on the structured cooperation of users, developers, operators, and policymakers. INDIMO project partners  representing pilot cities, developers of digital mobility services and vulnerable users’ associations will showcase the project methodology and initial findings. They will also discuss with a series of external experts how users’ requirements and preferences can be translated into concrete technical solutions, leading to the creation or the redesign of truly inclusive mobility and logistics solutions.

Connection Details and Agenda

Check out the draft agenda and register to the event using the button links provided below. Places are limited. Stay tuned for updates on speakers!

Download agenda

For more information or any issue with the registration procedure, please contact Piero Valmassoi pvalmassoi@polisnetwork.eu

Register

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INDIMO: a first step towards digital inclusion

Breaking the barriers of digital mobility is not something that happens overnight. Nonetheless, INDIMO’s outcomes will help to guide this change. As mobility services become more digitalised, the gap in access to mobility alternatives also increases. This challenge inspired Imre Keserü, project coordinator and researcher at VUB-MOBI, to write the INDIMO project together with several partners from Europe.

“Digitalisation makes a lot of things more comfortable and accessible, but more digitalised services can also leave many people out of its advantages”, clarifies Imre.

Notably, the most recent mobility solutions are focused on a highly digitalised target group. Taking the example of free-floating car sharing in Brussels, we clearly see that most of its users are people that have great affinity with technology, that understand and use apps regularly, that have the best smartphones to support these apps and that have access to credit card payments.

Yet, this is not the reality of most people. Data from Eurostat show that 42% of the population in Europe lacks basic digital skills and that around eighty million Europeans have never used the Internet. This considered, the societal gap will only increase for vulnerable groups, where people who are already in a difficult economic situation will not able to take a bus to work because they don’t own a credit card, a smartphone or another cashless payment method, for example.

Creating tools to introduce minimum requirements of accessibility in digital mobility

INDIMO’s partnership grew from the need to bridge the digitalisation gap in mobility. The consortium has as first objective that of understanding the needs of the identified vulnerable groups, understanding such group composed by those who are at risk of exclusion from digital mobility due to any kind of usage barriers and those who choose not to use digital services for other reasons.

Based on those needs, the consortium will focus on developing the guidelines for inclusive services. This will result in a Toolkit containing tools to help developers, policy makers and service operators to develop and implement accessible and inclusive mobility solutions. The Toolkit will be then tested in five pilot locations.

The partnership wants to target both developers and companies responsible for digital mobility systems and policy makers:

“Targeting policy makers (local, regional, national authorities) is very important as they are the ones who can introduce minimum requirements of accessibility as a new norm…”, explains Imre, “Often new mobility services are developed by start-ups that have a primary objective of making profits and, by that, target their services at users who make this possible, postponing accessibility requirements… Luckily, we are seeing more and more companies and start-ups open to new ideas for accessibility, as our pilot partner door2door.”

Moreover, INDIMO will pay close attention to cybersecurity. The on-line security of customers is particularly important for the groups INDIMO is targeting, who are often less experienced in using apps and can be a target for cybercriminals.

Visit our pilot projects

COVID-19: a barrier and an opportunity

The first months of the project were struck by a new reality that is now familiar to all of us: a pandemic that forced countries into a standstill like never seen before.

“COVID-19 affected INDIMO in two ways: on the one hand, we had to adapt our approach to fit the new conditions (for example, we couldn’t have face-to-face interviews, which was difficult when trying to reach people not connected digitally); on the other hand, this was an opportunity for digitalisation in mobility”.

Without a doubt, digitalisation was crucial during the COVID-19 lockdown. With the restrictions on freedom of movement the need for digital mobility grew. This led to a rise of innovative services that answered people’s needs at the time. For example, INDIMO’s pilot partner in Madrid started helping elderly people getting their groceries by making food delivery services available. This new wave of digitalisation can have counterproductive effects in digital inclusion, as services and payments become more and more digital, many can fall in even greater exclusion.

Ultimately, INDIMO wants to prevent these adverse consequences, by creating a blueprint for digital mobility for the future. Imre hopes that the project is able to feed into future policies and strengthen the access to digital services. Nevertheless, INDIMO will only be the first step towards digital accessibility and inclusion. Digitalisation will continue and new services and new challenges will appear, thus, more efforts for adapting and updating the blueprint to match current innovation will be needed.

credits: Georg Pflueger via Unsplash

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