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A man in a wheelchair is on a train station platform on a sunny day

Motability Foundation User Research Grants awarded to six charities

Tuesday, 02 April 2024

We are pleased to announce Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK) and TRL, National Autistic Society, Sustrans, United Response, Autistica and Wheelchair Alliance have each received one of our User Research Grants.

Why are funding the six research projects?

We established our User Research Grants at the Motability Foundation to support charities and disabled people’s organisations to carry out research on transport and disability with their beneficiaries.

The six new charity-led projects are exploring issues around accessibility to transport for disabled people.

Learn more about each project

The latest charities and projects to receive a User Research Grant are:

  • CoMoUK and TRL – a research project exploring the barriers facing disabled people in accessing car clubs and identifying solutions to make them more inclusive.
  • National Autistic Society – a research project exploring the transport preferences of autistic people and identify innovative tools to make transport more accessible and enjoyable for them.
  • Sustrans – a research project exploring how to ensure disabled people are represented as places transform mobility.
  • United Response – a research project exploring the impact disability hate crime on public transport has on disabled people.
  • Autistica – a research project exploring the key challenges faced by autistic and neurodiverse people (including those with less visible disabilities) in accessing public and private transport.
  • Wheelchair Alliance – a research project exploring how barriers to accessing wheelchairs can be overcome at a service level, specifically what measures are needed to improve wheelchair services.

Next steps

Research for each of these projects will be taking place over the next year, with their reports and recommendations being published in spring 2025.

“New solutions for accessible travel”

Rachael Badger, our Director of Performance and Innovation, said: “We are really excited to be supporting these excellent charities to work with disabled people to explore their lived experiences and the daily challenges they face when planning and making journeys.

“User research, led by organisations with a deep understanding of the issues and barriers, is a vital route to finding new solutions for accessible travel.”

Learn more about our User Research Grants

Read about our User Research Grants and how to apply.  

We also have published reports from previous User Research Grants available to read including research from Leonard Cheshire (PDF 1.4 MB), RNIB (PDF 676.7 KB) and the Wheelchair Alliance (PDF 4.1 MB).

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Find out more

User Research Grants

We grant-fund organisations that are exploring experimental and new ways to make transport more accessible for disabled people.

Research Grants

Innovation and research

Our innovation team has commissioned research to better understand the barriers faced by disabled people in accessing transport.

Impact and Innovation

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

If you have any questions about our grant programmes you can learn more by visiting and reading our FAQs. 

FAQ