In July 2025 we ran a social media campaign funded by the Motability Foundation to let disabled and neurodivergent people know they could reach out to our free, confidential mental health text service Shout if they were feeling anxious, stressed or distressed about travel.
The aim
Our 2025 report into the behaviours, attitudes and barriers of disabled people when travelling found that an individual’s disability has a significant impact on their experience when travelling and using public transport.
Those with physical disabilities can be impacted by the lack of awareness of travel staff and lack of infrastructure to accommodate their needs, with 56% of respondents avoiding travelling altogether due to accessibility concerns. For individuals with non-physical disabilities, they often find travel challenging due to the environment, with overcrowding and lack of available seating reported by 83% of neurodivergent respondents as an external barrier making travel more difficult.
43% of disabled people overall told us that they “often” experience challenges while travelling, and nearly a third (32%) said they needed support while travelling, but couldn’t find any.
With this understanding and with continued funding and support from the Motability Foundation, we launched a summertime social media campaign to raise awareness of our text support service, Shout, among disabled and neurodivergent people who might feel anxious, stressed or distressed about travel, or avoid it due to their mental health.
The campaign
With campaign management from Catnip Comms, we worked with six influencers including The Infrequent Flyers, Ross Lannon and Clara Holmes to produce content which was then shared on Instagram and TikTok in July, at a time when many have summer travel plans.
The content creators in this campaign all had lived experience of disability or neurodivergence, have strong engagement with their audiences and have shared their travel stories before. Here, they were letting their audiences know that anyone struggling can text the keyword ‘Travel’ to 85258 for free, confidential support with their mental health.
The campaign videos received over 40,000 views across Instagram and TikTok, and the content was often saved by viewers, showing that audiences were storing the information for when they might need it. The impact of the campaign was also reflected in the comments of the videos, with viewers expressing:
- They hadn’t heard of the service before
- That it was a useful resource for them
- They would save the number in their phone
- That it was helpful, as they were worried about an upcoming journey
As a result of the campaign, we were able to reach audiences who may not have known about our service otherwise, highlighting that support is available the next time they travel.
The Shout service is accessible, removing many of the barriers people often face when looking for help with their mental health. Being silent and text-based, it can be used confidentially from anywhere in the UK, at any time of day or night. This accessibility is reflected in the demographics who use our service, with 84% of texters telling us they live with a long-term illness or condition.