A Warm Welcome

A warm welcome to the ‘Let’s move together’ website!

About the website
The website aim is to collect and share multiple perspectives around Scooters and Power Wheelchairs (Motorised Mobility Devices (MMDs)). The website material is built around the Australian Research Council Linkage Project, titled ‘Integrated Futures for the use of Motorised Mobility Devices’. The project team is comprised of research professionals and paired with the leading industry partner ATSA. The project aims are twofold. The first is to foster greater acceptance and understanding of the material and social barriers to inclusion of MMDs in both public and private spaces. The second is to have positive impacts on the future integration of MMDs into the transport system through informing policy debates.

Consequently, the strength of the project relies upon creating connections to MMDs users, manufacturers, health professionals and carers. This will occur in several ways including the ATSA Independent Living Expos in Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney.

You may be a user of MMDs or a carer for someone who uses an MMD, you may be a health professional, social worker or government planning officer, you may be an importer, supplier, or repairer. Whatever your role, for us it is very important to collect a diverse range of opinions in order to produce recommendations and suggestions that are representative of many members of the community.

We want to hear from you.
Do you have an opinion about the kinds of barriers and constraints that must be overcome in everyday life? In what ways do you think scooters or power wheelchairs should be regulated or not? If so, how should legislation be developed around them?
If these questions spark an interest, then we would appreciate you contacting us..

Where are we up to?
We are in the process of completing paperwork and in the initial stages of planning the research design.

Research Design
Our data collection will take many forms, for example an online qualitative survey, online or phone interviews, using maps or sketches, community discussion groups, advisory panels and audio-visual recordings.

For each stage of the project we will consult as a team with our industry partner to ensure that we are focusing on the correct questions. We aim to have a presence at industry events such as the Expo hosted by ATSA so that the community can make contact with us, participate in the research and influence how the research project will unfold. The upcoming events for our research team include the Expo event in Melbourne May 18 & 19, and Perth May 26 & 27, 2021. We will also be presenting an outline of our proposed research at the Universal Design Conference in Melbourne in May 2021

We need your help now: What excites you about this project?
You are invited to make a short (up to 5 minutes) video recording on your phone or mobile device and to send it to us. You can upload your video here. Tell us what excites you about the project or suggest what kinds of questions we should be asking. These video submissions will guide us in how we approach the research but will also be used to bring attention to the issues at public events.

A range of videos will be selected to be shown at the Expos and so we will require your written consent. You will find a consent form on our website on the contacts page and we ask you to fill this in when you submit your video. So, go on, don’t be shy, tell us what you think we need to know in order to undertake research that is relevant, timely and vital. Have your say on the future of scooters and power wheelchairs (Motorised Mobility Devises – MMD’s).

How to stay in touch
This website will be regularly updated to document the different stages of the research. There will be opportunities to be involved in the research, and this will differ depending on what kind of group you belong to. For example, we will be collecting the contact details of professionals at industry events in order to schedule focus groups and discussion groups. We will also be collecting the contact details of users (including families and carers) who may wish to be involved in interviews.

Interested in participating in future research?
There are a range of ways that you can participate in the research. First, by checking this website you will be aware of where the research team will be located at different times of the year. This may allow you to approach us in person and to discuss how you might contribute to the project. Or you might like to provide your contact details on our contacts page to register your interest in participating. Other groups such as people working in government or community organisations may want to be involved in the project through focus groups or consultations which will be run at different points during the year and we encourage you to register your interest either at the ATSA Independent Living Expo or on the contact page of this website. We also welcome other academics who may have interests aligned with the project to be in direct contact with the research team.

We are hugely excited to be starting this important research project! We will depend on input from many sectors of the community and will be influenced by their beliefs, practices and visions for the future to craft a project that can make a real difference for MMD users, is current, relevant and empirically robust.

Melanie RobertsonWelcome