This article is part of a dedicated interview series with Pilot Site partners of the InclusiveSpaces project, highlighting innovative tools, technologies, and solutions aimed at improving accessibility and fostering inclusive mobility in public spaces. The series explores how practical, user-centred approaches are being implemented to better understand mobility patterns, identify accessibility barriers, and support more independent and equitable access for all.
This article features insights from Theodora Betsidou, Project Manager at MaaSLab, who leads the development of the Empathy and Detect Tool within the InclusiveSpaces project, an interactive platform designed to collect and analyse travel demand data from both individuals with impairments and the general population. By combining a mobile application and a web-based dashboard, the tool enables users to report real-world accessibility challenges while providing urban planners and public authorities with actionable insights. By transforming lived experiences into data-driven evidence, the Empathy Tool supports more inclusive, accessible, and user-informed urban design.
Introduction to the technology
Could you briefly introduce your tool and explain the need it was designed to address?
The Empathy Tool, developed by MLAB, is an interactive platform consisting of a mobile application for Android and iOS users and a web interface, where results are shared with both stakeholders and app users. The tool is designed to collect and process travel demand data from individuals with impairments as well as the general population, addressing the need for a better understanding of mobility patterns and accessibility barriers, which are often underrepresented in traditional transport planning.
The development of the Empathy Tool aims to create an equitable urban environment for everyone by systematically identifying existing barriers within the city and providing actionable information to urban planners and public authorities. By highlighting accessibility challenges that affect people in vulnerable situations, the tool supports informed decision-making and targeted interventions toward more inclusive urban design.
How does it support independence and accessibility for people with mobility challenges in public spaces?
The Empathy Tool supports independence and accessibility by enabling people with mobility challenges to actively document and communicate the barriers they face in public spaces. Through the mobile app, users can report inaccessible sidewalks, public transport issues, unsafe crossings, or other obstacles using voice, text, or images, allowing them to share their real-life experiences in an easy and accessible way.
By continuously tracking daily journeys, the tool builds a realistic picture of how people with mobility impairments move through the city and where they are prevented from doing so independently. These data are transformed into actionable insights through the empathy dashboard, giving city authorities and planners clear evidence of where interventions are needed.
This feedback loop ensures that accessibility improvements are based on the actual experiences of people with disabilities, helping to create public spaces that are safer, more accessible, and more supportive of independent mobility for everyone.
Features
What are the key functions of your tool, and how do they contribute to creating more inclusive environments?
The Empathy Tool combines data collection, analysis, and decision support to support the creation of more inclusive public spaces. Its key functions are designed to give visibility to accessibility challenges and transform user experiences into actionable planning insights.
Through its mobile application, users can report barriers and inaccessible areas using voice, text, or images, allowing people with different abilities to share their experiences in an accessible way. The app also tracks daily journeys, capturing how people actually move through the city rather than how infrastructure is assumed to be used.
These inputs are processed using AI models, which identify patterns in mobility behaviour and accessibility problems. The results are presented through an empathy dashboard that allows urban planners and authorities to visualise where barriers exist, how they affect people’s independence, and where improvements will have the greatest impact.
By directly linking lived experiences to planning decisions, the Empathy Tool helps cities design transport systems and public spaces that are more accessible, equitable, and inclusive for all users.
How did user feedback influence the design of your tool?
During the testing phase of the Empathy Tool, two demonstration sites were involved: Larnaka and Budapest. The feedback received from users was primarily used to further improve the application and make it more inclusive and accessible for people with different abilities. Based on this feedback, the tool was updated with more appropriate features for users with borderline intellectual functioning, ensuring that the interface, navigation, and interaction flows are easier to understand and use. These improvements strengthened the Empathy Tool’s ability to support a wider range of users and to better reflect their mobility experiences.
Pilot site testing
What criteria was considered to pick Geneva as the pilot site demonstration city?
Geneva is considered a city with sufficient infrastructure to support people in vulnerable situations. However, there are still differences in how equity is applied across the city. Moreover, ensuring accessibility for everyone represents a different type of demonstration context compared to Cyprus and Hungary, where significant changes are still required to achieve a true “design for all” approach.
Taking all these factors into account, the results from the demonstration phases are expected to be highly beneficial, as they will help identify deficiencies and necessary improvements across the three countries where the Empathy tool will be demonstrated.
Technical set-up
The Empathy Tool is distributed through the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, allowing users to install the application directly on their personal mobile devices, depending on the operating system. The Tool is available in the three official languages of the demonstration sites, with English provided as an additional reference language, ensuring operational readiness across all pilot locations.
From a technical standpoint, the tool supports multimodal user input through its reporting functionality, enabling users to document perceived accessibility barriers by pinning locations and submitting reports in text, image, or voice format. All user interactions and reports are automatically logged by the system, allowing for structured and systematic data collection without additional technical intervention from the user. This streamlined installation and onboarding process ensures rapid deployment and effective use of the tool across diverse user groups.
Demonstration phase
What are the key elements you plan to showcase during the tool demonstrations?
The most important and distinctive components of the Empathy Tool are its reporting functionality, the collection of daily trip tracking data, and the web-based interface presented as a visual dashboard. The web interface aggregates and displays all reports submitted through the mobile application and provides statistical data for each demonstration site where the tool is deployed.
This dashboard supports the identification and prioritisation of actions to be taken by visualising accessibility conditions and challenges within each demonstration site. In addition, during the demonstration phases, the analysis of collected travel data will help highlight routes and areas that people in vulnerable situations can use without facing significant barriers. By identifying accessible and barrier-free environments, the tool contributes to greater independence in daily travel and supports more inclusive urban mobility planning.
How will the demonstration phase help you assess the tools’ real-world effectiveness in supporting people with mobility challenges?
The reporting section of the Empathy Tool serves as a direct mechanism for evaluating accessibility conditions for people in all types of vulnerable situations. Its use contributes to two key objectives. First, it informs other users of the tool about specific areas within the city where accessibility barriers exist or where the principles of “design for all” are not fully met, enabling them to plan alternative routes. Second, the aggregated reports provide evidence that can be used to encourage and support local and national authorities in addressing and resolving reported accessibility issues through targeted interventions. Consequently, both the volume of reports generated and the quality of the information provided empower users to better plan their journeys, avoid problematic locations, and travel more independently.
Future outlook
The ultimate vision for the Empathy Tool is to ensure that users’ experiences and needs are not only heard but actively addressed by urban planners and public authorities. By transforming real-life feedback into actionable insights, the tool contributes directly to improving accessibility across urban environments.
Working on InclusiveSpaces has been particularly rewarding for the MaaSLab team, as it demonstrated that inclusive design can be effectively translated into practice. Testing in Larnaka and Budapest showed that people with diverse disabilities could use the tool independently, validating the “design for all” approach. Most importantly, the Empathy Tool establishes a direct link between individuals in vulnerable situations and decision-makers, helping bridge a critical gap in urban planning and supporting more inclusive, equitable cities.