Right and participation: Participatory universal design of public bus for older persons

Although the barrier-free concept in transportation has been advocated for many years, older persons still face difficulties and restrictions in accessing public buses. This paper first emphasises the right of older persons to access public buses. Taking Hong Kong as a case study, this paper reviews the key difficulties and restrictions for older persons to access public buses, and identifies the directions for design improvement. It then reports the process of a participatory design project that involved older persons as active participants in the different design stages. It discusses the matters of concern in carrying out this kind of participatory projects. Finally, the paper advocates that the best way to obtain a universal design for older persons is by user participation.