New Windsor app is like TripAdvisor for people with disabilities

 

By Mengru Feng

People in Windsor with disabilities now have their very own TripAdvisor-type app that shows them what places in the city can meet their needs and gives those businesses a rating.

It was showcased at St. Clair College Feb. 24 during the first Windsor Mini Maker Faire, a festival for creativity and innovation.

Josh Greig, the lead software developer for AccessLocator, brought the product to display and promote.

The AccessLocator is a website that can help individuals with social, vision, hearing, communication and physical disabilities access complete and clear information about locations around Windsor.

“Although there have existed some similar products, users still have trouble access dependable and complete information. The website is attempting to solve the problems,” Greig said.

The website will provide a multi-faceted review of a facility’s accessibility by using a comprehensive checklist.

“As a user of our website, you can share how the locations meet their accessibility needs as a contribution to data and rating collection. That means the more feedback, the more accurate the information,” said Greig.

“The information they provide on this website is essential for the people who cannot see, cannot walk and cannot hear. It is very important and helpful,” said Abdlrahmin Alrifai, a volunteer with the Maker Faire.

The idea for this application came from the Hacking Health Windsor-Detroit 2016 Hackathon from two paediatric clinicians with the John McGivney Children’s Centre, a paediatric rehabilitation facility.

The app received great feedback when it first showed at a conference on Toronto’s waterfront on April 2017.

The app is currently focusing on Windsor, Detroit and Toronto, but Windsor has the most complete information for now.

“There are approximately 30 volunteers who attended our tests. We need more volunteers to accomplish our website,” said Stephanos Mavromoustakos, another lead software developer of AccessLocator.

“We planned to promote our web application publicly in the fall this year, (but) there are still some technological problems left for us to solve,” said Greig.

More information on AccessLocator is available at its website.