Favourite Conference Poster - The History of Accessible Transport Archive

Turn Up and Go

Image courtesy of Transport For All

Protest Megaphone.

Image courtesy of Transport For All

We Have a Right to Ride.

Image courtesy of Transport For All

Transport for All turns 40

Image by DandyDoodles, supplied by Transport For All

Shampoo and Go.

Image courtesy of Transport For All

Protest Arrest.

Image courtesy of Transport For All

As disabled people we’ve often been written out of history, forgotten, or misrepresented – this archive changes that.

Disabled people’s fight for equality has centred around accessible transport. From courageous activists who chained themselves to buses and secured the first Disability Discrimination Act, to today’s campaigners who fought the government to keep staff and ticket offices at stations.

For over 40 years, Transport for All – led by and for disabled people – has worked to break down barriers to transport, so that disabled people can make the journeys we want to, with freedom, dignity, ease and confidence.

The History of Accessible Transport project has been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to keep our community’s history alive. Over the past two years, we have gone through boxes, files and cupboards of memories. Our members have posted items they have collected to us, and we have trawled our photo albums to digitise and catalogue this understudied subject.

Protest signs and more

We brought together protest signs from those very first demonstrations, as well as countless boxes of newspaper clippings and pictures.

We traced notable people who helped to secure our rights, and – with appropriate payment in place for their time and energy – learned about their lives as disabled people and campaigners, the good experiences and bad, gathered as oral histories.

The history of accessible transport archive will be online, where it can be accessed by anyone, inspiring the next generations of disabled campaigners. It is accessible and easy to use, following good practice for digital accessibility.

Paving the way for future groups

We’re also paving the way for future groups, with resources so others can make archives of their own. We have guides for campaigners to collect accessible oral histories from people in their own movements, tips for digitising on a budget and specialist insight into building accessibility in to archive websites.

As a Disabled People’s Organisation, our community is central to the project, deciding how we should record our heritage. The archive development has been led and guided by disabled people – co-produced with a paid steering group so we can gain the benefits of our shared experiences and tailor the project to make the most impact.

Together we’ll make sure that our voices are finally preserved in history, to one day be a relic, once equality has been achieved and transport is accessible to us all.