For anyone with accessibility requirements, using public transport can feel daunting – especially the London Underground, a famously busy and popular travel network.
Simon Sansome, founder and CEO of the Snowball Community app, was so apprehensive about travelling around London on the Underground that he avoided it for 10 years after he became disabled. “I come down to London quite a lot,” he says. “I hadn’t been on a Tube in 10 years – I’m 43 now. I was terrified of actually using the Tube.
“I was coming down twice monthly on a regular basis to London, and it was costing me £150 in taxis every time, over two days. And I thought, ‘This can’t continue’.”
The Snowball Community allows users to search for restaurants, shops, cafes, attractions, venues and more and review them based on how accessible they are. Creating a dedicated Tube map allows users to easily find stations that are partly or fully accessible.
“I spoke to TFL and they agreed to let us visit every Tube station in London, and we started working with them,” says Simon. “And we created an accessible map. We’ve got rid of all the non-accessible stations on the map because it was just complicated and overwhelming.”
Fully accessible stations from street to train appear with a green symbol, while partly-accessible stations, where you might require assistance to access the platform or the train appear, with an orange symbol.
Simon’s hope for the new map is that Snowball app users will be encouraged to travel to London and enjoy everything the city has to offer.
“We’re trying to encourage people to use the Underground more,” he added. “If you look at the London Tube map, it’s a brilliant design, but for anyone who’s disabled, to try and find an accessible Tube station on there is quite complicated.”
Download the Snowball Community app for free on the App Store or Google Play.
Photo: Snowball Community
