TInnGO's representation of European gender transport poverty as a wicked problem

Globally, transport poverty is acknowledged as a wicked problem. Transport is an enabler to education, health care, employment, and leisure activities. Therefore, reducing transport poverty is key for the EU to building an inclusive and equal society. However, many citizens are denied access to effective and efficient forms of transport. They may lack agency/freedom to travel, the transport they need unaffordable or unavailable. Certain groups are designed out of transport systems, and therefore out of the life of the city. Not all these reasons are to do with transport per se, but they are exacerbated by inequalities in the transport system. The term ‘gender transport poverty’ has been used to emphasize the added problems faced by women because of their gender.The H2020 TInnGO project was designed to create a paradigm shift in the European transport (usage, employment, and education) sector, in the emerging field of smart mobility with respect to gender. This paper articulates some of the work conducted by the project to show the gains which can be made through recognizing and naming gender transport poverty as a wicked problem

Developing and implementing sustainable, inclusive, integrated and accessible transport strategies

H2020 CIVITAS SUITS (Sustainable Urban Integrated Transport Systems: Transferable tools for Small to Medium localauthorities) is a four-year research and innovation action (RIA), entering its final 18 months

Co design for empathy and reducing barriers to inclusion

One of TInnGO’s USPs relates to design-led engagement of diverse groups in transport futures, to understand their unmet needs, and to feed these insights into the project and wider stakeholders. Similar to citizen science, we aimed for a paradigm shift in transport system design, towards co-design by and with end users, using the process of design research and visual communication as a process of engagement. As previously outlined our work in this area was impeded by Covid, which meant we could not work face to face ‘in the wild’ with any vulnerable users or be co-located in the hubs.Nevertheless, we worked remotely for 18 months with undergraduate design interns to create Design Provocations (https://oip.transportgenderobservatory.eu/ideas-lab) based on ideas sent to us by a hub, or our own experience as female users of transport services. The Design Provocations are based on critique amongst the project team, inclusively designed around user journey touch points. Extensive conversations around design drawings, personas, market research and journey maps produced new insight, challenged the young designers and enabled them to develop transferable skills (i.e., empathy and systems design thinking), while our non-designers were able to think more creatively, outside the box and relate detailed personal experiences in exciting, interactive and nonthreatening discussions.The early concepts are provided as design provocations, along with short textual commentaries on the Open innovation Platform to nudge people into commenting with further insights of mobility. Indicative of the works is: the Pinkorner which uses bus stops as platforms for social education and the Nurturepod, which provides temporary solace when infants need un-rushed care. In terms of moving forward, the design provocations remain on our OIP for others to develop, to stimulate wider discussion of the meaning and application of gender and diversity smart mobility and the use of design as a means of breaking down barriers

Supporting ergonomics in concept design

Supporting ergonomics in concept desig

The Use of iPads to Enhance Joint Attention Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Background: iPads are increasingly used in primary schools with reported benefits in communication, independent learning and creativity. Children with autism spectrum disorder have an affinity with mobile technology, which is recognised by the autism research community with many studies emerging in this field. Joint attention (JA) is an essential life skill which can indicate the later development of social communication and language acquisition. It is usually absent or impaired in children with autism, which means that they often find it difficult to share attention with an adult or peer about a toy or activity by keeping eye contact and pointing, but also showing interest to the other person. Research on the use of iPads to develop JA skills in autism is still in infancy.Objectives: This qualitative study aims to explore primary school teachers’ and parents’ perspectives and experiences of developing JA skills in children with autism using iPads.Methods: Semi structured interviews with 16 school staff members and nonobtrusive observations of 12 pupils interacting with their teacher using iPads were held in three UK schools. Also, parents of children with autism aged 4-11 years old are currently being interviewed to investigate parents’ practice of developing JA beyond school hours and exploring the iPad’s benefits in promoting JA in different contexts.Results: All teachers used teaching strategies to promote JA on a daily basis but a few used iPads in their classroom. Participants expressed different opinions about the effectiveness of teaching strategies and iPad use in developing JA. The observations showed that teachers used a variety of evidence based strategies to engage their pupils with autism in JA opportunities but that there was little use of iPads. The iPad was mainly used as a reward, a motivator to direct and sustain pupils’ attention, to practice turntaking and waiting skills and to teach the curriculum. Preliminary findings derived from the semi structured interviews with parents have shown that parents use a variety of social activities to boost their child’s joint attention skills. Their views though were contradictory regarding the iPadTM’s contribution in developing JA skills, with a few parents mentioning that the iPad can be a solitary device that can further isolate their child from daily human interactions while other parents have mentioned that the iPad is a motivating tool used to grasp their child’s attention and teach them JA. Parents have also mentioned that they wish to have stronger links with their child’s school.Conclusions: The research concludes that schools would benefit from teacher training and dissemination of good practice on how to use iPads for JA purposes. Parents are also interested in discovering how they can best address their children’s needs in cooperation with the schools. To that end, the future steps of this research include creating guidelines about the way to develop JA opportunities at home and school with the use of the iPad as an engaging educational device