London, UK, 24 November 2021: Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform developer SkedGo calls out the industry to take a stronger lead in making technology accessible to all user groups.
According to the MaaS Alliance, MaaS promises transport users to provide “the best value proposition by helping them meet their mobility needs and solve the inconvenient parts of individual journeys and the entire system of mobility services.” Yet too often MaaS pilots and projects, while commendably focussing on the sustainability aspect of travel, neglect the requirements of transport users, especially those with disabilities and diverse needs.
Sandra Witzel, CMO and board director of SkedGo says “15% of the world population live with a disability that affects their daily mobility. This is a significant part of the overall population, which is estimated to rise in the next decades. MaaS offers the unique opportunity to use technology for good and support people with disabilities and diverse needs. We can already do this by making our routing and journey planning capabilities more sophisticated and ensuring our interfaces, like phone and web apps, are accessible.”
Accessibility-focussed journey planning requires good quality data, something that is often missing or not prioritised in MaaS projects. Where this data is available, SkedGo integrates it into their products, so clients are able to offer wheelchair-friendly routing with real-time updates to their end-users for example. Detailed data on the quality of sidewalks is also a crucial part of this kind of routing and needs to be integrated with a MaaS solution. In addition, the company recently implemented more advanced voice-over/screenreader features to support usage by visually impaired and blind people.
SkedGo has published all their accessibility features and made some features available open-source to spread their usage. The company also works with US-based not-for-profit Feonix – Mobility Rising to create MaaS solutions specifically for disadvantaged communities.
About SkedGo
SkedGo was founded in 2009. Its HQ is in Sydney, Australia and the enterprise has teams in Germany, UK, Vietnam and Argentina. SkedGo provides the technological building blocks, which include its award-winning TripGo API, to create optimal MaaS solutions for governments, leading start-ups and corporations.
In 2016, TripGo spin-off RioGo won the official Rio Olympic City Transport challenge for the Olympic games. In 2017, SkedGo was named Gartner Cool Vendor for Smart Cities Applications and Solutions. Also in 2017, SkedGo won the Smart Cities & Accessibility Challenge run by the NSW Department of Finance, Service and Innovation with Transport for NSW and Slingshot to include more features for wheelchair users.
In 2018, TripGo was named ‘Best Smartphone App’ by industry publication Business MaaS. Strategic consultancy Ptolemus nominated SkedGo as ‘Best Mobility Platform Provider’ in 2019.
In 2020, SkedGo was awarded Smart City Platform of the year at the Future Digital Awards.
