On February 11th myself and Michaela travelled to Wolverhampton to attend the Journeys for Everyone Accessibility conference.

This is a conference that was looking at how to make transport work for everyone.

West Midlands Transport has an ambition that by 2035, 50% more people will be using sustainable public transport (buses, rail and tram) and that journeys from home to destination should take no longer than 45 minutes.

For Michaela and I it was a very informative day. We looked at everything from cycle routes to safer pavements and accessible travel. We had a chance to say how we thought things could be improved.
We found out that a lot of disabled people don’t travel due to how difficult it is. We learnt that:

• 79% of disabled people travel less often because of barriers
• 84% experience longer journey times
• 75% say travelling causes stress

And we learnt that deaf people learning to drive have issues finding an instructor. We were told that there is just one qualified Deaf instructor in the UK.

We heard from people with different disabilities just how challenging it can be to do even the shortest of journeys.

They shared their experiences as a wheelchair user, a blind person with a guide dog and someone who uses an adapted cycle.

It is something most people take for granted, the ability to go out when and where they want but this session really highlighted the barriers faced by disabled people when trying to travel. We aren’t talking about travel for  holidays, its everyday things such as getting to appointments/work or trying to enjoy a social life  or even trying to go shopping.

The venue and the staff at the venue were lovely, it was fully accessible and the food was nice.

I definitely enjoyed the day and learnt a lot.