Metro Trains celebrate International Women’s Day including a focus on women with disability
Metro Trains celebrate International Women’s Day including a focus on women with disability
Ruby and Natalie were invited to celebrate International Women’s Day and the intersection with women with disability with the Metro Trains team and a room of about 100 guests from different disability employment and advocacy organisations.
Broadcaster and author, Jacinta Parsons, delivered a rousing keynote address, where we not only heard about her experience living with Crohn’s Disease and the silent struggles all women experience with disabilities and health conditions that go unseen, but we learnt that her first job was as a Tram Conductor. She was joined in conversation by Jess Colgan, advocate for disability inclusive employment and CEO at All Things Equal and Andrea Patsouris, Metro Trains’ Accessibility Assurance Specialist.
Metro Trains and the Melbourne Rail Network are huge supporters of Inclusive Design at Ability Works. In the last few years Ability Works has worked on
- A first-year review of the Metro Trains Sunflower Hidden Disabilities Program – conducting user research, engaging people with lived experience of hidden disabilities and existing users of the Sunflower program. We shared with Metro important insights into how users experienced the train network, if they felt supported by Metro staff and what suggestions they have for future improvements.
- Two separate night lighting trials to test the luminance of night lighting at train stations and how different types of lighting impact and are experienced by people with different disabilities. Late last year we conducted a test of censor-based night lighting as part of a car park sustainability lighting pilot.
These projects provide great accessibility insights for Metro Trains and wonderful, diverse gig-work opportunities for people with lived experience.