Community-Driven Innovation

Selected

WheeLog!

A community for wheelchair users to map accessible spaces and share their experiences

Team Lead

Yuriko Oda

Solution Pitch

The Problem

For wheelchair users, information about the accessibility of restaurants, hotels, bathrooms, routes, roads, and more is crucial to their mobility—but that information tends to be scarce and scattered. Without that knowledge, the world’s 65 million wheelchair users are often unable to fully participate in society and the economy.

The Solution

WheeLog! is an application that enables individual users and local governments to share accessibility information about travel routes, places of interest, and more, such that wheelchair users and others with reduced mobility can confidently experience their worlds. 

Available wherever Google Maps operates, the app’s interactive, crowdsourced map centralizes information about routes that its users have taken (or found inaccessible), complete with photos. It also offers a database of accessible restaurants, hotels, stations, bathrooms, and other public facilities. App users can interact with each other by sharing more personalized accessibility experiences, organizing meetups, and requesting more information about particular locations.

Market Opportunity

In Japan alone, there are 20 million people in need of accessible pathways around cities, including wheelchair users, cane users, parents with strollers, and physical assistance providers. WheeLog! aims to capture a global market of 65 million wheelchair users. WheeLog!’s B2B model serves local and national governments and corporations in multiple industries, improving the accessibility of their products and services, and enabling them to attract more customers. 

Partnership Goals

WheeLog! currently seeks:

  • Support to further develop WheeLog!’s product, including translation services, server and other computational resources, and sensor street-measurement expertise;
  • Mentorship to refine business model and strategy for the app and user data;
  • Connections to potential business partners and B2B clients; and
  • Funding support through investments or grants.

Organization Highlights

Some of WheeLog!’s notable achievements include:

  • Winning best accessibility experience at the 2019 Google Play Awards;
  • Winning the special audience award at the 2018 Tokyo City Government Open Data Challenge;
  • Selection as a World Summit Awards 2018 Global Champion; and
  • Winning the Grand Prize at the 2015 Google Impact Challenge. 

Existing Partnerships

WheeLog! currently partners with several organizations to promote mobility in Tokyo, such as:

  • The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and several local governments, which support data-collection and pilot projects;
  • Machida City, which supports open data utilization;
  • Nippon Airways and 2nd FACTORY Co. Ltd., which support pilot projects; and
  • Nonoconect Inc., which supports application development.

Stats

WheeLog has gathered information about more than 5,500 kilometers of accessible routes and over 18,000 posts about accessibility.

Solver Team

Organization Type:
Nonprofit

Headquarters:
Tokyo, Japan

Company Stage:
Pilot

Working in:
Japan

Employees:
2

Website:
https://www.wheelog.com/hp/

Solution Team:

Economic Prosperity

Mapping Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

Solver WheeLog! received the $25,000 GM Prize on Community-Driven Innovation from Member General Motors in 2019 to create a community for wheelchair users to map accessible spaces and share their experiences.

Economic Prosperity

Mapping Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

Solver WheeLog! received the $25,000 Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prize from Member Morgridge Family Foundation in 2019 to create a community for wheelchair users to map accessible spaces and share their experiences.

Economic Prosperity

Mapping Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

Solver WheeLog!, a community for wheelchair users to map accessible spaces and share their experiences, received a $10,000 grant from Solve in 2019 for being selected as a Community-Driven Innovation Solver.

 
 
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