UK-wide survey asks 10,000 people with disabilities about everyday barriers
updated on Mar 13, 2026
A major UK survey is inviting 10,000 disabled people to share the everyday barriers they face, in a bid to highlight how design decisions continue to exclude millions.
Launched by inclusive design charity Designability, The Unfair Index: Designing a Fairer Future aims to capture the real experiences of disabled people across the country — from challenges at home and work to navigating public spaces, technology, and community life.
The findings will be used to create the UK’s first Unfair Index, identifying the most urgent and harmful barriers in daily life, particularly those that could be addressed through better design.
Around one in five people in the UK lives with a disability, according to the Office for National Statistics, yet, many still encounter obstacles that limit independence and participation. This survey aims to turn those experiences into evidence that can support meaningful change.
Saida Ahmed, a powered wheelchair user taking part, says: “At the moment I’m being met with performative talk,” she says.
“People say they will do it but they don’t. We don’t want slow changes. We want to live like everyone else. Why does it have to be an add-on thought? I’m a human being. Treat me like one and I’ll treat you like one.”
The project has been co-designed with a pan-disability lived experience advisory panel, made up of people affected from all over the UK, ensuring lived experience is central to the research.
Norin, a member from London, says she wanted to use her experiences to influence change: “As a person with lived experience facing challenges and barriers in everyday life, and coping with so many inaccessible facilities, services, products, design and transport, I joined the panel to contribute my experiences,” she explains.
Designability’s chief executive Jim Bowes believes the scale of the survey could help shift the conversation from awareness to action.
“Millions of disabled people face barriers every day that stop them fully participating in daily life,” he says. “Whether that’s financially, socially or academically, we’ve designed the world to be unfair for so many people – and we believe with good design we can do better.”
Where solutions fall outside Designability’s expertise, the charity says insights will be shared with organisations and policymakers able to address them.
Disabled people, neurodivergent people, unpaid carers and parents of disabled children are invited to take part until the end of April. The full Unfair Index is expected to be published later in 2026.
