User Engagement Report Accessible EV Charging

Document summary

The accessibility of public charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) has been identified by
Motability, the national disability charity, as a priority area, to prevent disabled drivers, passengers,
and pedestrians being disadvantaged as the UK phases out the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles.
Designability, the disability and design charity, is working with Motability on their project aiming to
make EV charging accessible.
This report describes the User Engagement work carried out by Designability to understand in detail
from disabled users and the people close to them the topics raised in an earlier phase of Scoping and
Discovery, about the future accessibility of electric vehicle charging. This report does not present
design solutions for accessible public EV charging, nor is it an exhaustive review of the public
charging market, but it describes the insights, experiences and views shared by disabled people and
those close to them during the User Engagement research activities.
To source views from disabled people for this engagement, Designability contacted 10,000
Motability Scheme customers. Through the Motability Scheme, disabled people in receipt of
particular mobility benefits in the UK can lease a vehicle, which can be adapted to suit their needs.
809 Motability Scheme customers subsequently demonstrated an interest in participating in the
research, of which Designability then selected and invited 184 potential participants to take part in
the User Engagement research activities.
Designability’s researchers carried out four User Engagement activities to gather detailed insights
from a total of eighty-seven Motability Scheme customers in the UK with a wide range of
characteristics and vehicles.
The topic areas covered during the activities in different combinations were: experiences and views
of the EV charging process and public charging provision; views about using an EV now or in the
future; parking (including payment), fuelling and journeys.
The detailed findings from all users across all four activities were summarised under the headings of
Built Environment, The Charging Process, Information About Charging Points and Other Topics. The
built environment topic included the need for accessible parking (in general and charging-specific) as
a significant aspect of accessible public charging. The charging process included physical and
information provision aspects of the use of cables, connectors, sockets and charge point units.
Some challenges around public EV charging faced by disabled people related to the need for
disability-specific provision, and other aspects related to issues that could be experienced by any
user, such as reliability, availability, and the complexity of existing public charging solutions and the
charging market (although these broader issues could have a disproportionately negative effect on
disabled people).