Context
In December 2021, community advocate Tricia Malowney was appointed Victoria’s first Chief Accessibility Advocate to the Department of Transport and Planning.
In 2022, she was also awarded the Rodney Warmington Estate Churchill Fellowship to assess international best practices for end-to-end transport opportunities for disabled people.
Getting to ‘better’
As the first Chief Accessibility Advocate (CAA) and as a person with a disability, Tricia knows that there can be a difference between policy and what happens in practice.
Through her fellowship, she aims to ensure that the most effective and best-practice transport options are considered in Victoria. This may include determining the best service options services for people with accessibility needs and potential improvements to make it easier for everyone to use public transport.
Global insights for local needs
Building on the connections she has made internationally and supported by the fellowship, she is working to assess how inclusive transport policy works for people with disabilities internationally.
Throughout early-mid 2024, she visited Europe, the UK, Ireland, and North America, speaking with international colleagues responsible for accessible transport and connecting with transport users to understand their lived experience.
Tricia aims to bring these global perspectives and ideas to Melbourne, and examine their potential in our local context.