Disclaimer: This article is published in partnership with Siemens. Siemens is paying for my engagement, not for promotional purpose. Opinions are my own.

The IAA Mobility Show 2021 in Munich came with the motto „What will move us next“ and expanded well outside the usual trade fair center into the city of Munich, where the general public was invited to explore and test all kind of shiny new e-Mobility devices.
Low and zero-emission electrical mobility dominated this year’s IAA show. As well as huge groups of climate activists from all over Germany that flocked into the city trying to stop the mobility show, blaming them for greenwashing and demanding more radical action.

Königsplatz in Munich during IAA Mobility Show

With all the buzz about electric and climate: what role does inclusion play in mobility – not only in the future but now?

Is inclusion on the sideline of the current developments of mobility?

Part of the Siemens IAA campaign #MoveToTransform is the cooperation with the activist for inclusion and accessibility Raul Krauthausen as #MobilityMover:

I dream of mobility that provides equal accessibility to people everywhere,” said Raul Krauthausen. “Smart cities, smart infrastructure, smart public transport for everybody, including those with disabilities, must become the norm.
Source: Siemens press release, September 3rd 202 1

When I learned that Siemens Smart Infrastructure will have a workshop during IAA in cooperation with Sozialhelden, founded by Raul Krauthausen, to challenge the design of Siemens own charging stations in terms of accessibility, I knew this was going to be my number one reason to go to Munich during the mobility show.

Raul Krauthausen and Sozialhelden challenging Siemens: more inclusion for charging stations emobility IAA21 #MobilityMover

Siemens Workshop “Barrier free Charging“

Besides members of the product and development team from Siemens we had Constantin Grosch from Sozialhelden in the workshop.
He brought in the outside view in terms of inclusion from his personal and consulting experience with other major brands to focus on inclusive designs. Additionally, we had several Siemens employees with disabilities to share their experience with the team and add to the diversity.

Siemens Workshop with Sozialhelden and disabled employees to improve accessibility on charging stations — Coworking spaces Siemens Munich Perlach: Workshop with Sozialhelden and Siemens

We had a general exchange on what the Siemens product team already considers regarding inclusion and usability for the product design and I learned from Constantin the perspective of a disabled e-Car user:

If you use an electric car to travel beyond your daily well-known perimeter, and you need to charge your car on the way, you can theoretically plan ahead where to charge your car. Yet only by the time you arrive at the charging station you will be able to see to what extent the charging station is accessible or not.
There is not yet an app or map to provide such information and you risk finding yourself unable to charge your car and continue your trip.

We then ventured out to the charging stations within the Siemens campus to test and challenge the actual products and gain a better understanding of the many barriers that make it so difficult to use the charging stations with a disability. And Siemens seized the opportunity and had people testing the charging stations, who never had used a charger before. The product management team made sure to thoroughly understand the feedback and took many notes for further improvements.

Siemens charging stations inclusion test

During lunch break, I sat with the product and development team, and they immediately started discussing how the feedback could be integrated in current or future products. For sure not all can be realized at once, but I understood, that rather sooner than later, the first findings coming from this exciting workshop will be implemented and I already got an update that first steps are already underway.

The „curb cut effect“

One more thing I learnt from Constantin is the „curb cut effect“ which describes that if you take into consideration the needs of people with disabilities into your product design, the usability of your product will improve the overall user experience for many more users.

I mean: think of your non tech-savvy friend or maybe your (grand-)parents?
Or did you ever read the captions of a video without turning the sound of the video on?
There you go: curb cut effect.

Even technically skilled people every now and then find themselves in front of bad user design and ask themselves:
“Why isn’t that as easy as [insert your favorite usability product here]?” 😊

The industry of electrical charging stations is still young and developing towards a yet unknown future standard/mainstream. So why not start to design these new products with a focus on accessibility? Of course, there are technical challenges as well but chances are your product will become more intuitive to use for everyone and for sure more inclusive.

Siemens has just introduced at IAA the pilot of an autonomous charging system for all kind of vehicles without even leaving the car.

Roland Busch and Stefan Perras presenting pilot system for autonomous charging

But until this becomes a reality in our daily infrastructure it will be exciting to see how the influence of this cooperation with Sozialhelden will translate into existing products.

Take a good look at the charging stations that pop up everywhere:

Are they located on an elevated concrete base or in a green area?
How high above the ground are cables and monitors located?
Are the charging stations „protected“ by obstacles like additional high curbs or iron stands?
How much room is there to exit a car with a wheel chair?
Can you operate the charger with one hand and do you need some physical force to plug it in and out?

Constantin from Sozialhelden summarized the workshop in this Tweet:

Today at @Siemens Charging infrastructure investigated for accessibility. Still some work to do, but also an open-minded – and more importantly – determined project team.
Constantin Grosch on Twitter

It was my pleasure and honor to have been part of this special workshop and I will never look at a charging station the same way again. Will you?