‘Being treated like an actual person’: attitudinal accessibility on the bus

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic data of participants.

	Survey		Focus groups
	N	Valid %	N	Valid %
Gender
Male	29	35.4	2	18.18
Female	47	57.3	9	81.82
Non-binary and agender	4	4.9	0	0
Transgender	2	2.4	0	0
Completing survey/focus group as
Disabled person	85	70.83	10	90.90
Support person	35	29.16	1	9.09
Reported cultural identity
Aboriginal Australian*	5	5.9	0	0
Jewish Australian	2	2.4	1	9.09
White/Caucasian/Anglo-Celtic Australians**	61	71.8	4	36.36
New Zealander	2	2.4	0	0
Asian***	2	2.4	0	0
Iraqi	1	1.2	0	0
Lebanese	1	1.2	0	0
Mediterranean****	2	2.4	0	0
Indian	0	0	1	9.09
Missing data	9	10.5	5	45.45
Personal factors related to disability/ies and/or health conditions impacting bus experience*****
Vision	35	29.2	0	0
Hearing	16	13.3	2	18.18
Mobility	43	35.8	3	27.27
Sensation	20	16.7	0	0
Communication	23	19.2	1	9.09
Emotions	28	23.3	4	36.36
Cognition	14	11.7	2	18.18
Other	11	9.2	1	9.09
Missing data	5	4.0	5	45.45
State
Australian Capital Territory	12	14.1	0	0
New South Wales	23	27.1	0	0
Queensland	7	8.2	0	0
South Australia	5	5.9	0	0
Tasmania	1	1.2	1	9.09
Victoria	26	30.6	10	90.90
Western Australia	11	12.9	0	0

*Term used by majority of participants, bar one participant using ‘Indigenous Australian’.

**Various terms used.

***One participant identified as ‘Asian’, one participant identified as ‘Asian/Cambodian/Khmer’.

****One participant identified as ‘Mediterranean’, one participant as ‘Italian’.

*****Participants had multiple factors, resulting in overlapping frequencies.

Table 2. Age.

Factor	Survey	Focus group/interviews
Mean	47.36	35.66
Median	46.00	35
Mode	67.00	–
Std. deviation	16.68	6.69
Range	57.00	19
Minimum	20.00	28
Maximum	77.00	47

Table 3. Survey participant attitudes towards bus drivers.

	N	% Valid
I feel some bus drivers have a negative attitude
Pretty much all the time	5	7.8
Most of the time	8	12.5
About half the time	9	14.1
Sometimes	26	40.6
Hardly ever	14	21.9
Not sure	2	3.1
I feel confident in bus drivers’ ability to communicate with me
Pretty much all the time	18	28.1
Most of the time	16	25.0
About half the time	11	17.2
Sometimes	16	25.0
Hardly ever	2	3.1
Not sure	1	1.6
I feel respected by bus drivers
Pretty much all the time	18	28.1
Most of the time	19	27.9
About half the time	9	14.1
Sometimes	10	15.6
Hardly ever	8	12.5
Not sure	0	0
I feel bus drives generally understand my assistance needs
Pretty much all the time	13	20.3
Most of the time	19	29.7
About half the time	10	15.6
Sometimes	10	15.6
Hardly ever	10	15.6
Not sure	2	3.1
I feel bus drivers are better than most other community members at helping
Pretty much all the time	6	9.4
Most of the time	15	23.4
About half the time	15	23.4
Sometimes	15	23.4
Hardly ever	11	17.2
Not sure	2	3.1
I feel bus drivers listen to what I say
Pretty much all the time	6	9.4
Most of the time	19	29.7
About half the time	11	17.2
Sometimes	14	21.9
Hardly ever	11	17.2
Not sure	3	4.7

Table 4. Relationships between person factors and attitudes towards drivers survey questions using Fisher’s Exact Test.

	Questions	Gender	Age	State of residence
20	I feel bus drivers generally understand my assistance needs	.010*	.008**	.918
21	I feel confident in bus driver’s ability to communicate with me	.065	.449	.701
22	I feel respected by bus drivers	.024*	.568	.108
23	I feel some bus drivers have a negative attitude towards disability	.004**	.304	.701
24	I feel bus drivers are better than most other community members at helping	.092	.160	.542
25	I feel bus drivers listen to what I say	.060	.019*	.143

Note. Gender compared between male; female; and non-binary, agender and transgender participants. Age was compared between groups 18–34; 35–64; and 65+. States refer to the Australian state in which the participant lived.

Table 5. Relationships between person factors and driver related questions from the survey using Chi-square analysis.

	Questions	Gender	Age	State of residence
26	Ask if assistance is needed if indicated	.819	.138	.757
27	Bus drivers use appropriate eye contact	.040*	.146	<.001***
28	Bus drivers ask me to repeat information if they did not understand me	.788	.058	.500
29	Bus drivers respond appropriately when asked a question	.473	.148	.377
30	Bus drivers speak to me in a normal speaking voice	.151	.102	.323
31	Bus drivers respond clearly and directly	.962	.166	.272
32	Bus drivers are polite and respectful	.052	.102	.299
33	Bus drivers are patronising	.557	.367	.036*
34	Bus drivers interrupt	.113	.833	.703
35	Bus drivers ignore my requests or questions	.363	.101	.142
36	Bus drivers direct questions unnecessarily to a support worker or other person	.157	.158	.003**
37	Bus drivers ask inappropriate and/or intrusive questions about my/other persons’ disability	.057	.179	.204
38	Bus drivers use appropriate language regarding disability	.040*	.290	.295
39	Bus drivers brake, corner and/or accelerate appropriately	.224	.171	.525
40	Bus drivers stop an appropriate distance for boarding/disembarking	.037*	.188	.384
41	Bus drivers lower the bus and/or deploy the ramp appropriately for boarding/disembarking	.081	.072	.403
42	Bus drivers assist appropriately if requested	.982	.142	.311
43	Bus drivers don’t stop to pick up a passenger with a disability waiting at the bus stop	.398	.813	<.001***
44	Bus drivers attempt to assist passengers who do not require assistance	.326	.780	.059
45	Bus drivers do not respect the personal space of the passenger (or their device/assistance animal)	.766	.107	.222
46	Bus drivers prevent passengers taking their assistance animals on the bus	<.001***	.045*	<.001***
47	Bus drivers prevent people from taking mobility devices on buses	.836	.954	.824
48	Bus drivers do not wait for passengers to sit down or position their device before driving off	.565	<.001***	.069

Note * 0.05, ** 0.01, ***0.001  

Table 6. Passenger experience survey participants’ recommendations for bus driver training.

	N	Valid %
If you were to design a training program, you would include
Type of disability	77	67.0
How to assist a person with a disability	98	85.2
How to communicate with a person with a disability	90	78.3
How to use their bus equipment better	69	60
How to be more respectful to people with a disability	73	63.5
Other	21	18.3

Figure 1. Study Themes.