--- title: "Disability awareness and inclusive service training" description: "Disability awareness practice for councils, transport and customer-facing teams: co-designed VR, Library titles, AI roleplay and facilitated sessions." canonical: https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/disability-awareness-and-inclusive-service --- [Training programs](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training) / Disability awareness and inclusive service # Disability awareness and inclusive service: feel the barrier, then serve better A kerb, a counter, a bus ramp. Meet them from the other side, then practise the conversation that helps. The moment ## A counter too high, a ramp not offered A wheelchair user waits at a counter built for someone standing. A traveller with a cane is steered by the elbow without being asked. A customer with social anxiety is spoken about as if they were not there. Staff usually mean well. The moment goes wrong in the detail. A bus driver at the wheelchair ramp. A cane user walks past the station officer. A wheelchair user beside a shopfront ramp. Why it goes wrong ## Awareness is a list; service is a conversation Accessibility is usually presented as a list of physical requirements. Staff learn what the ramp is for when they meet the barrier from the inside, and find the words that help once they have practised them. A therapist walks behind a cane user. ### Offer help without taking over Knowing when a traveller does not want assistance is as much a skill as offering it. Practice lets staff try each approach, hear how it lands and settle on the question that respects the person. Every way to practise it ## Co-designed VR, ready-made titles, a browser and a facilitator Built with the people who live it, and run where your staff work. A cafe scenario for supported movement. ### Custom VR, co-designed with people who live it For [Central Coast Council](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/central-coast-council-disability-awareness), PTR built a first-person experience co-designed with the council’s Access and Inclusion Reference Group, set at a beach and a shopping centre. It runs in teacher training, council staff training and CSIRO-facilitated sessions. A colleague leans in to speak. ### Ready-made VR titles [Speak to Me Normally](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/speak-to-me-normally) puts people inside social anxiety at work, designed from lived experience. [Equal Reality VR](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/equal-reality-vr) titles cover discrimination at the counter and everyday bias. A retail assistant practises answering a customer. ### AI roleplay for customer-facing teams An [AI roleplay partner](https://peopletechrevolution.com/ai/ai-roleplay-practice) plays the customer on a laptop or phone, so counter, contact-centre and transport staff rehearse the request they find awkward, then review it. A co-founder beside a wheelchair user, laughing. ### A facilitated session A facilitator sets the scene, each person meets the barrier, and the group talks through what they would change at their own counter, ramp or front desk. The evidence ## What participants said, and what research looks at Participant feedback was gathered after sessions by the council and PTR. The research is by other teams. A therapist measures a doorway for a rail. ### Participant feedback: Central Coast Council “The experience was an incredible eye opener into the difficulties faced by people with a disability to engage in everyday activities”, a participant wrote after a session. An observer and participant share a room. ### Research: perspective-taking in VR A large [PLOS ONE comparison](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204494) set VR perspective-taking against traditional methods and looked at how long the effect lasts. An [independent software review](https://doi.org/10.1007/s44322-025-00034-z) tested the titles in the PTR VR Library. How it runs ## Run it the way your team already learns. [Run it yourself Your facilitator runs PTR VR Library titles on standalone headsets.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library) [In a browser Staff rehearse with an AI partner on a laptop, no headset.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/ai/ai-roleplay-practice) [Facilitated over video A PTR facilitator runs the debrief by video, wherever teams sit.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/how-we-deliver) [With your trainer A trainer you already know runs it, licensed and prepared by PTR.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/for-trainers) A resident raises a concern at a counter. ### Start with the barrier your customers meet Tell us the counter, the ramp or the front desk where service goes wrong, and we will show you how teams rehearse it. [Talk to us](https://peopletechrevolution.com/talk-to-us) or [book a time with our team](https://calendly.com/simon-ptrvr/30min?utm_content=soldisabilityawareness). Related pages - [Central Coast Council case study](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/central-coast-council-disability-awareness) - [Disability services](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/industries/disability) - [Local government](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/industries/local-government) - [Transport & logistics](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/industries/transport-logistics) - [Speak to Me Normally](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/speak-to-me-normally) - [All training programs](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training) Training staff to serve everyone? [Open the contact form](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/disability-awareness-and-inclusive-service#contact) Ask our CEO Simon Lowe’s Digital Twin a question ## Sources Each study at its source. ### [Building long-term empathy: a large-scale comparison of traditional and virtual reality perspective-taking](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204494) Herrera, Bailenson, Weisz, Ogle and Zaki, PLOS ONE, 2018 VR perspective-taking against traditional methods, and how long the effect lasts. ### [Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810013000597) Peck, Seinfeld, Aglioti and Slater, Consciousness and Cognition, 2013 What changes when a person occupies another body in VR. ### [The use of virtual reality training to enhance empathy: software review](https://doi.org/10.1007/s44322-025-00034-z) Khukalenko and Khanolainen, Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 2025 An independent review that tested the PTR VR Library.