How a patient created an app to improve wheelchair mobility

After a motorcycle accident at 14 years old, Brandon Winfield (he/him) was diagnosed with a thoracic spinal cord injury, which meant that he became paralyzed from the waist down. This completely changed his life, as he once loved to race, he now wasn't able to.

He was then faced with the decision to let this dramatic event stop him from truly living the life he wanted or turn it into an opportunity to triumph in the face of tragedy – Brandon chose the latter. This meant that, in order to pursue his dream, he needed to change gears and look at a different type of motorsport. Brandon then entered sprint kart racing and won numerous events across the country, which meant that he traveled quite often, and quickly realized that although some places he visited were compliant according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), many areas were grandfathered in and couldn't accommodate the mobility impaired.

These tough experiences sparked an idea to create iAccess, which is a mobile app that allows people with disabilities to rate and review the accessibility of venues such as restaurants, lounges, clubs, and bars. Through this, Brandon, and his co-founder Sayeed Mehrjerdian, aim to empower users to “know before they go” and feel confident making plans with their friends and families.

Since their launch in 2015, on iOS and Android platforms, they have gathered over 3000 unique locations rated in over 45 states and 25 countries!

Learn more about this solution here
This story was adapted from https://www.iaccess.life/about/