Visibility: first issue to tackle surrounding disabilities

Pulse: After a degree in engineering, you went on to work for SNCF and then got elected to Rouen City Council. How did you end up at the helm of Les Compagnons du Voyage ?

Abdelkrim Marchani : After my degree, on joining SNCF, I initially worked on train services, then on various rail-related products. I then moved into rail infrastructure, particularly in Normandy. It was following this career journey, which was more professional than political, that I applied for the post of Chief Executive of Les Compagnons du Voyage, a non-profit organisation affiliated with the SNCF and the RATP. I got the job and was placed on secondment by the SNCF to manage the organisation. It was a world I knew nothing about at first, as no one in my immediate family or circle of friends has a disability. But I felt it would be meaningful to work on something other than economic development, which was already the focus of my professional and political life. I wanted to take on a different kind of commitment, on a different issue, but one that was just as worthwhile.

Can you briefly present the organisation?

Our aim is to empower everyone to use public transport, whether occasionally or regularly, by assisting them until they are able to do so independently. For example, we support pupils at the National Institute for Deaf Children for around ten months after they start Year 7, so that they can travel between home and school completely independently, even in the event of disruption. We do the same with young blind people, as well as with children with autism spectrum disorders or Down syndrome, ensuring they understand their surroundings and feel safe there. The first people we need to win over are the families, who have often resigned themselves to travelling with their child only by car, thereby limiting their options.

You said earlier that you had no personal experience of disability before you arrived in the organisation, so what have you discovered since?

I have been in charge of the organisation for almost three years now, and I have had time to discover a whole world which, I believe, many of our fellow citizens are unaware of, as they are also not directly impacted by it themselves. I have found a world that doesn’t wait around but takes the initiative to improve everyday life through adapted infrastructure or apps that transcribe speech for the hard of hearing, or alert the visually impaired to an upcoming obstacle… With the development of artificial intelligence, there is certainly going to be a revolution in these support tools. We don’t know enough about this world unless we are directly exposed to it, and I think that’s a shame.

The Compagnons du Voyage approach is people-centred rather than technical, as you provide guides rather than simply more ramps, lifts or even new signage. Do you consider this approach essential in a world where there is so much talk of technology?

Technology can’t do everything, whether it’s the infrastructure or the new apps I mentioned earlier. If you don’t have someone to explain what it does and how it can help you in your daily life, it won’t be any use. I often explain this to our trip guides, whom we call “companions”: whatever the future holds, there will always be a need for us because we adapt to very different people or disabilities. There’s a very broad spectrum, and I’ve discovered that too: there are life’s accidents, those who were once able-bodied and now find themselves severely disabled; the little girl who is starting to lose her sight due to an illness; children whose parents are also disabled; very different cases of Down syndrome… All these situations are different and, when it comes to adapting, we need this human approach, this direct contact.

Isn’t there still a blind spot when it comes to what are now known as hidden disabilities? People who sometimes need specific help without it being visible or obvious, and who might not necessarily want to be singled out, even if it is to help them?

Let’s take the example of children with autism – a disability that is very difficult to detect, but which you can gradually pick up on through certain behaviours. I’m no expert in signage or wayfinding, but I do think we’ve made progress in how we present information, use arrows and provide directions. There comes a point where it is difficult to replace the human touch. To stick with the example of a child with autism, they need a routine to feel safe, and we need to take the time to build that routine with them. Ultimately, I think the problem is, first and foremost, that not enough is being said about it. If I had a magic wand, I would ensure that these difficulties, these “hidden disabilities”, were better known to the general public and therefore more… visible, ultimately. As someone involved in politics, I can clearly see the way things work: when people are made aware of a problem, of the difficulties faced by others, they can say to themselves “OK, we need to do something”, showing natural empathy. But if you don’t know… That was the situation I was in, I must confess. And yet, I’d worked on making railway stations accessible! It’s my firm belief that the primary challenge facing disability today is its visibility. If the issue is better known, more widely discussed and more visible, then we’ll make progress.

What breakthroughs have come in signage or wayfinding, and how can we go even further?

This may have more to do with Paris than other cities, but I believe the Olympics helped us improve signage, because we needed to guide people who didn’t speak French, and we made signage simpler and clearer in many places. Plus, when we carry out construction work, we always upgrade to the latest standards, particularly to make places accessible. How can we keep improving? With an ageing population, we need to rethink how we provide information: text that’s too small, delivered too quickly or designed for an informed audience. In my view, there’s a tremendous opportunity with smartphones and data, which can help guide people, assist them according to their limitations or disabilities, and, for example, direct older people towards escalators rather than stairs.

You mentioned a magic wand, but if you did have one, what first steps would you take to improve accessibility in transport in the short and medium term?

To stick to what is achievable and build on what I was saying earlier, I’ll start by improving the dissemination of information to the relevant groups. If you take the example of the Compagnons du Voyage, we aren’t well known enough, even though we offer, for instance, the option for families to escort a grandmother who needs to travel from Lille to Marseille, with a connection between Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon in Paris. To simplify this often stressful transfer, it is best to use an assistance service: not only is this service no more expensive than a taxi—and often even cheaper—but it provides end-to-end support. The person is guided from the moment they step off the train until their next departure, in the safest and most relaxed conditions possible, without the family having to worry about organising the transfer between the two stations. There are plenty of solutions available to make public transport accessible to everyone, but they aren’t widely known, and collectively, we need to do better in this regard. If I really had a magic wand, I’d make all transport infrastructure fully accessible, but it’s my pragmatic, engineer’s side that reminds me that all this will take time. Whatever the progress, the options available must at least be known to those most affected. It would also be wonderful if everyone were fully aware of the difficulties faced by people with disabilities, because I think we would be better off, collectively, if this became crystal clear to everyone, and not just to those who are directly affected.