WheelRoute - Navigating people in a wheelchair

Inclusion of people with disabilities into everyday activities involves practices and policies designed to identify and remove barriers such as physical, that hamper individuals’ ability to have full participation in society, the same as people without disabilities. It is considered that most disabled people spend their time in their houses. Modern cities are called to successfully face the issues of accessibility and urban mobility. Technological progress leads to the adoption of social innovation methods. In AccessLab we are a reliable partner for local government organizations, businesses and individuals who want to comply with EU guidelines for the sustainability of cities and offer innovative solutions to citizens, visitors and tourists with disabilities. Our proposal is about giving incentives to disabled people to move in the city as equal members of the society. Our initiative will bring a new web app in the EU market and at the same time supply government institutions and local authorities with a digital tool with major social impact which will facilitate disabled people to spend time outdoors, to socialize and visit urban places. The aim is to offer to government institutions and local authorities a web application which could be used for any urban area and be adjusted according to different pedestrian movement characteristics so as to facilitate mobility and everyday life of people with disabilities. Our team is developing an innovative web application that informs the users about safe pedestrian movement and also navigates them through the most accessible route. The main users of the web application would be people with disabilities, elderly people and their familiars, whereas the study area would be urban areas with great importance for disabled people and their everyday activities. The web app hosts a web interactive map, which includes all the information about urban infrastructures and accessible pedestrian movement, shown in a friendly way for the users. Our team develops an innovative real-time navigation system for accessible pedestrian movement for people with disabilities. This system will demonstrate the most accessible way to reach a point of interest for disabled people. Our project is concentrated on inclusive and democratized dynamic development of tools in use, through user feedback for evaluation of the proposed routes. The proof of concept lies in the already established application in the critical region of Athens. Our platform WheelRoute informs the wheelchair user about the accessibility of the urban infrastructures. WheelRoute consists of a web map that contains open data about the points with ramps, sidewalks and crossings. The user can search for the safest or shortest route through accessible sidewalks and ramps, in order to reach a point of interest. The user can also report an obstacle that makes it difficult to move. The scalability of the proposed technology will be revisited after the feedback of the end users. The revised tool will be upgraded and upscaled following a B2G business model, leading to a private and public sector collaboration to benefit sensitive social groups. Our ambition is to offer a web application that enhances safe pedestrian movement inside the city grid for disabled people. Our idea is about developing an innovative web platform for people with disabilities and elderly people. This web app will inform the users about accessible urban infrastructures and navigate them through the safest and most accessible route to reach their destination.