If you would like to learn more about TESS and hear from City of London officers how TESS’s predecessor CoLSAT was used on the scheme to improve Bank Junction, two free training sessions will be running at the Guildhall on September 26th and 30th from 9am to 12pm. If you would like to attend please email: Andrea.Larice@cityoflondon.gov.uk
TESS (Tool for Equitable Streetscapes) is a spreadsheet-based tool for assessing the likely accessibility of both existing streets and new design schemes. It can be used by street designers and highways engineers to help inform their design work by easily identifying how street features are likely to impact on the different needs of disabled people. It can also be used by highways authorities or other interested parties, such as disabled people’s organisations, to identify and prioritise the accessibility issues on an existing street network. Where there are trade-offs between the needs of different groups of disabled people TESS can help to resolve these in an evidence-based manner.
TESS is based on detailed qualitative interviews with 105 disabled individuals and displays the likely impact of different configurations for 52 street characteristics on disabled people in 13 distinct needs segments covering mobility, sensory and neurological impairments and neurodiversity.
Alongside simple colour-coded highlights indicating which groups of disabled people are likely to be impacted positively or negatively by particular street design features, TESS also displays direct quotes from the research interviews, providing insights from the lived experience of disabled research participants in order to contextualise each issue.
![Detail image of the spreadsheet described above. The feature ‘800mm deep blister paving edge marking (partial width)’ is selected and the column for long cane users is showing a 1 and shaded in orange with the columns for guide dog users, residual sight users people with hearing impairments and people with sensory processing diversity showing 2s and shaded in a lighter shade of orange. A pop up box of text is showing next to the long cane user column with the following text displayed: ‘800mm deep (full width): "I like the blister paving, it's distinguishing which is the way to go and what is the safe bit to walk on and what is the unsafe bit to walk on." P64 "There's a risk when it's on a curve [with astraight back edge] that you won't know which direction the crossing is in. A bollard would prevent you crossing on the wrong side." P87; No tactile edge marking: "There is nothing to feel where I need to cross. I need some tactile thing to indicate." P27 "This is really difficult for me, it feels like the same as the road." P75 "That one instantly sends me cold. There is no way in hell I could use it." P87; 800mm deep (partial width): "It's really possible I would make a mistake with that, so I would not use it at all." P81 "I've come across this a lot of times and you don't realise you're crossing a road. The blisters don't seem to go all that far across... when you've got a large pavement area they tend to put it either dead in the middle or to the side so you would be walking and completely miss the blisters and walk into the road" P85](http://www.rossatkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TESS_Quote_1024.jpg)
The tool is a development of the City of London Street Accessibility Tool (CoLSAT) which has been in use by the City of London Corporation and other local authorities since 2021. The development of TESS has been funded by The National Centre for Accessible Transport and has included the addition of over 60 additional interviews and the expansion of the street characteristics and features covered to represent street conditions commonly found across the UK. TESS has been developed by Ross Atkin Associates, Urban Movement, The City of London Corporation and Transport for All.
TESS is an Excel file and is available to freely download and use:
The route comments are an accompanying Excel file which contains commentary research participants made, as part of the interview process, in response to a video compilation of actual street designs around the UK, or tactile models of the some of the same street layouts. These can help to further contextualise the recommendations made by the tool itself:
The instructions are a PDF with advice on how to apply TESS to an actual street or the design of a new scheme:
