Accessibility of Public Transport: A Review of Barriers Faced by Disabled Individuals and Older Adults

Transport is undeniably the lifeblood of society (Vos et al., 2013), facilitating movement and enhancing individuals' accessibility to places, people, and services (Ravensbergen, 2021). It plays a crucial role in fostering well-being, social capital, and psychological health by enabling active participation at destinations. Nevertheless, older adults are often perceived as less mobile than younger people (i.e. lowmobility populations), as they are more likely to have developed one or more types of functional limitations, such as physical, visual, hearing, or cognitive impairments. As such, if their mobility needs are not met by the elements in the public transport system, the barriers would evoke negative experiences and reduce their self-efficacy in travelling in the future, which is detrimental for them to integrate into the society and can foster their marginalization. The present study aims to examine the existing literature on the general and respective barriers as experienced by disabled individuals and older adults through a scoping review, using the framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley (2003). Specifically, this study seeks to delineate the physical, social and informational barriers by their temporal aspects (i.e. Phase in a Journey Chain Model). Finally, the identified barriers and facilitators across would be mapped as well.