See the story behind WheelEasy
Why is WheelEasy needed?
In our land of the 'fair go', you would think that we all have a basic right of access. But at the moment, many people are still isolated and excluded. They often get stuck, they give up and they stay in.
For anyone who has a mobility impairment, the biggest problem is often not just physical access, but a lack of access information. And it's not only just that one person, it's all their friends and family who get stuck too.
That's well over 1 million Australians not being able to go out and have the life that lots of us take for granted - going for a swim at the beach, for a bushwalk, a barbecue, a night out, or to see a film etc.
The problem? At the moment, 9 out of 10 people find access information difficult to find. It's scattered all over the web, it's buried on different sites, it's often not up-to-date, it can be inaccurate, or sometimes it's not available at all.
Mobility impaired people and their families and friends can spend hours searching for the information they need, making many phone calls; just to go for a simple day or evening out together.
At present there's no one place where all this information is gathered together, or where people can share what they know with others.
So we built the WheelEasy Access Information Website
It's a sort of Tripadvisor for everything to do with access. A one-stop-shop that brings together all this information into one place.
No more researching beforehand - it's designed for your mobile, so you can see what's nearby you, be spontaneous and change your mind, just like everyone else.
Most importantly, we'll grow the site by crowdsourcing the information, asking everyone to share what they know about access, creating a community of people who share the same access needs. WheelEasy is finally democratising access information.
Now, it’s all well and good having this fantastic website but for it to thrive and grow, people need to add places to the WheelEasy map -sharing what they know about access. We need to build a bank of access information and create a strong community.
Wheelie Great Days Out
To do this, we want to hold a series of events called Wheelie Great Days Out where everyone comes together - the mobility impaired, their family, friends and the whole local community.
They have coffee & cake and then go out and blitz the local area, adding really useful access information to the WheelEasy map. Each Day Out will be run by a volunteer Ambassador and this is where we need your help.
How can you help?
Every dollar we raise means we can support an Ambassador to hold several Wheelie Great Days Out in their town or city.
We've started by creating 10 Hotspots with over 900 places covered in Sydney. Our dream is to get WheelEasys’ access information out there to everyone who needs it Australia-wide; to get WheelEasy bookmarked on the mobile of every Australian who needs it. Enabling everyone to share places and things to do in their town or city - all over Australia.
Making this happen depends on word-of-mouth and community building. Raising the full amount on this campaign will allow us to appoint WheelEasy Ambassadors in all the major towns and cities, covering every state and territory across Australia; the more funds we raise, the more of Australia we can cover.
Thank you!
