REVOLUTIONARY: Hannah Cockroft, Aaron Phipps and Simon Sansome
Snowball, a revolutionary new accessibility app that asks disabled people to rate services and businesses by how disability-friendly they are has recently launched.
Users of the app can find a restaurant, tourist attraction, supermarket or coffee shop that is accessible by selecting their location, wherever they are in the world.
Disabled travellers and locals can add venues they have found welcoming and accessible for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and sensory issues. The more people that add suggestions the bigger the app grows – like a snowball.
Snowball is the brainchild of wheelchair-user and podcaster Simon Sansome, from Leicester. He says: “Snowball will have a significant impact in giving people with physical disabilities, mental health issues and learning disabilities successful journeys and great days out.
“In the last few weeks we have seen BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner stranded on a plane at Heathrow, a Guide Dog charity executive asked to leave a supermarket because of his guide dog, and disabled children unable to access playgrounds.
“The app will give people the confidence to socialise with ease as they will be able to see what facilities and venues are available in their immediate location. They will also be able to plan days out, giving people more freedom to access their communities, explore and travel with confidence.”
Simon, 40, a former amateur rugby player became paralysed from the waist down following a sudden injury in 2014. After a year of recovery, he took his wife to their favourite local restaurant only to realise there was no wheelchair access.
Simon set up the Facebook page Ability Access, to highlight good and bad examples of accessibility. It quickly gained 100,000 followers and is now the most-read disability page in the world. The feedback to the page inspired him to set up Snowball.
Team GB Paralympic gold medallists Hannah Cockroft OBE and Aaron Phipps MBE have welcomed Snowball.
Hannah, a wheelchair sprinter and world and Paralympic record holder, said: “An app like Snowball has been a long time coming. I am repeatedly told that disability access in the UK has improved out of sight, and whilst things are getting better, they are still not accessible. Snowball will change the everyday lives of many disabled people.
“We will no longer have to turn up and pray we can get in, do hours of online research just to find out if we will be able to enter, or phone up and be told a venue is accessible, when it really really isn’t – one step doesn’t make a huge difference, right? Snowball will give people back their time, freedom and independence and create an accessible space for all.’
Aaron, a wheelchair rugby player and marathon racer, said: “Many times when I’m out with friends and family I’ve had to hop out of my chair and hobble around on my bum to get into places. Snowball will give me an accessible world and I won’t have to worry about going out anymore with friends and family because we will all know where we can access thanks to the app.”
Snowball is also backed by former BBC Newsround presenter Martin Dougan, Channel 4 News sports reporter Jordan Jarret-Bryan and Ciara Lawrence, learning disability podcaster.
To learn more about Snowball, or to get reviewing, visit the website, or download the app from the Play Store or App Store.
