‘By us, for us’; Co-designing disability inclusion training for bus drivers

Passengers with disabilities report being driven past, denied bus access, inappropriately assisted, and rudely addressed by bus drivers. Bus drivers report their behaviour in encounters with passengers with disabilities is impacted by their limited understanding of their passengers' needs. This study aimed to create a bus driver training program targeting how bus drivers engage with passengers with disabilities. Drawing from co-design and inclusive research approaches, a team of seven researchers, transport advocates with lived experience of disability, and bus drivers, collaborated for 30 h over approximately twelve months to co-design a bus driver training program and evaluate the design process. Participant evaluations of the co-design process and resulting training program were completed. Team evaluations indicated the co-design process was inclusive and collaborative, with key challenges including resource constraints and a hard-to-navigate university payment system. A 90-min online training program, and one-hundred-and-eighty-minute face-to-face training program, were developed using a slide-deck and role-play activities to support drivers when interacting with passengers with disabilities. Named the Better Transport Inclusivity for all Passengers (Better Trip) Training Program, the prototype is ready for small-scale implementation, revisions, and wider rollout. The Better Trip Training Program offers bus companies and the wider transport community the opportunity to increase their inclusion of people with disabilities. The co-design process ensured people with disabilities and bus drivers' needs were reflected in the final product. Further research is required to test and refine the newly developed training program. • Disability inclusion training for bus drivers should be designed collaboratively by people with disabilities and bus drivers to ensure it reflects the needs of their communities. • Co-design processes to develop such disability inclusion training programs may benefit from being InCLUSIVE ; In clusive of cross-disability and intersectionality factors, C apability building, L ived-Experience-Centred in collaboration, U niversally accessible, S haring of power, I nterpersonal relationship building, V ital for the communities they seek to reflect, and offer E quitable renumeration for co-designers. People with disabilities report feeling unhappy and unsafe because of how some bus drivers speak to and behave towards them. A group of people with disabilities, bus drivers, and university researchers worked together to create a training program for bus drivers. This training program helps bus drivers treat passengers with disabilities fairly. The designers are sharing this information to help other teams do research that is inclusive of people with disabilities.