How important, more widely, is the issue of accessibility?
Incredibly important! There are more than 14 million disabled people in the UK (or 1 in 5 people) and, on average, 1 in 2 households has a connection to disability of some kind. Poor accessibility impacts not just disabled people and those with direct accessibility needs, but also their friends and family and loved ones. Moreover, accessibility is a precondition to participation and genuine inclusion. You cannot participate if you cannot even get in the door! Whether shopping, socialising, working, studying or just exploring – accessibility is vital to meaningful inclusion, both economically and socially. We encourage our partners to think accessibility holistically – from a user's perspective and beyond just basic legal compliance – so that improved access results in greater participation, belonging and opportunities.
Is it an area which, in your experience, can be overlooked by companies and organisations?
Yes, definitely – whilst a significant minority, disabled people are often underrepresented in mainstream spaces, given less attention than other minority groups and generally overlooked or forgotten about. For many organisations, empowering their disabled employees, customers, clients and other stakeholders is the last priority on their inclusion agenda and it is also something that many organisations are afraid of getting wrong. We think it's time to change this – we believe that ensuring accessibility is both a critical first step to ensuring broader inclusion for disabled people (ie to get them to the table), as well as a powerful foundation from which to build and enhance other initiatives, like cultural awareness training, inclusive hiring practices, workplace accommodations and more.
How beneficial has the support you received from the Skoll Venture Awards.
Winning the Skoll Venture Awards was a game-changer for us. It really helped us through that critical point of inflection where you move from an idea and a prototype into a company with a product to deploy. Off the back of the SVAs, we were able to make our first full-time hires, begin development on the first version of our app and, more generally, grow into the professional outfit we are today and will continue to become tomorrow.
How has the Sociability App helped to address issues around accessibility?
At Sociability, we see our app playing an important role in empowering choice and decision-making for disabled people. Unlike existing platforms, we're focused on giving disabled people detailed and objective information about the accessibility of local venues, so that they can decide for themselves whether it is suitably accessible to them, in that particular context Moreover, because Sociability is designed to be lay-person, non-disabled friendly – anyone can use our platform to find accessible places for disabled friends and family. Not only does this take the burden off disabled people from always having to do the work of finding accessible places, it also draws the attention of non-disabled people to issues of accessibility that have typically been out-of-sight and out-of-mind. By raising awareness in this really practical manner, we find that people take these lessons into their daily lives long after they've put their phones away.
We're proud of our impact to date but we're never satisfied! There are more than 1.3 billion disabled people worldwide and our mission is to make the world a more accessible & inclusive place for them all! Honestly, it's been a real challenge operating during a global pandemic – particularly with the second lockdown starting just weeks after our launch last year. Nevertheless, we know we're solving an important problem for disabled people and now information is more important than ever. We're excited about the year ahead! In the last month alone, we've already seen our user base and social media followings double to more than 1000 users and 3500 followers respectively! So, we've got our fingers crossed!
If you had one message on accessibility awareness, what would it be?
The first step is the most important. Don't let a fear of making mistakes stop you from making a start. Change is coming – let's embrace it, learn from one another and start the conversation today.
