A year ago today, the National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat) was launched at Coventry University, with the aim of making future and existing modes of transport accessible to all.
Funded by the Motability Foundation, the Centre works with disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, transport providers and policy makers to develop solutions which will make transport accessible for everyone.
ncat is based at the university’s National Transport Design Centre (NTDC) and is led by Professor Paul Herriotts.
The Centre proudly works in collaboration with charities RiDC and Designability and with organisations Connected Places Catapult, Policy Connect and WSP.
What has been happening at ncat?
Since its launch, ncat has set up a Community of Accessible Transport (CAT) panel for disabled people, people with lived experience, or people who work in the transport or disability sector to share their transport experiences.
The panel is made up of over 900 people so far. They take part in surveys and are invited to focus groups. The panel are invited to share ideas, learn from others and find solutions that work, in addition to taking part in the research.
More recently, consortium partner Policy Connect has worked with key stakeholders to set up a policy commission, which was launched in September with a parliamentary event to move forward with goals of the Centre.
The Centre set up its governance board comprising of 12 board members, six of whom are independent external experts in transport accessibility, each bringing lived experience of disability. The six consortium partners are each also represented by one member each on the board. The board is led by an independent chair, appointed by us.
What’s next?
Using the expertise of the partners, including the National Transport Design centre and its researchers, ncat are working on a series of projects looking into:
- customer research
- grant funding
- streetscapes
- transport design
- and roles for accessible transport in local authorities.
The Centre have also created a Knowledge Bank, which gathers all existing research regarding accessible transport.
How to get involved with the Centre
Learn more about the CAT panel.
