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Sociability x Toyota: delivering Mobility for All

App developed by start-up Sociability is a true game-changer for the lives of disabled people
17/02/2023
What does mobility look like from different perspectives? To achieve ever-better mobility for all, Toyota collaborates with innovative start-ups such as Sociability, which answers this question by bringing new inclusive mobility ideas to market.

Sociability is a technology company innovating in the accessibility space by empowering disabled people to explore with confidence. Through the free Sociability app, disabled people can quickly find reliable and accurate accessibility information for local venues - which can help transform their lives for the better. Have a look at what Sociability does!

 

“One in five people have a disability of some kind. A lot of those disabilities are invisible and actually 80 per cent of those disabilities are acquired, so people aren't born with them - it's something that happens to them throughout their lifetime.”
Matt Pierri – Founder, Sociability

In the beginning …

Sociability was inspired by the first-hand experience of its founder, Matt Pierri, who uses a wheelchair. When moving to the UK to study, he discovered that finding accessibility information for University accommodation was incredibly hard. He had to contact each college one by one, very rarely finding the answers he needed.  “It was really tiring and challenging to find any information, let alone information at the level of detail that I needed,” explains Matt. To address this real-world problem, Matt and his student friends began to crowdsource detailed accessibility information for colleges, libraries, halls of residence, restaurants and bars, and published it online for the benefit of others. “That’s where Sociability really grew from,” says Matt, “An organic need for this information to allow disabled people to go out and about and do the things they want to do with the people they love.”

Growing each day thanks to its users

Sociability aims to empower everyone to enjoy greater accessibility. It uses Matt’s original concept of user-generated, crowdsourced accessibility information and supercharges it with company-sourced data – thereby covering an ever-growing number of areas and local venues for which users can readily find detailed accessibility information as specific to their individual accessibility needs.

One of the ways Sociability grows its database is through organised mapping days. On these days, the Sociability team and app users visit an area and capture detailed accessibility information about venues, such as shops, bars and restaurants, whilst also engaging with business owners to highlight the benefits of providing greater accessibility to all.

“The reaction from businesses is really positive. If you're not disabled you might not think about it, but when we have that conversation, we end up talking about someone they know who's disabled and they say, 'oh yes, that would help my friend as well’.”
Gem Turner – Content Manager, Sociability

Enter, Toyota

Sociability’s work to improve mobility for all is what caught the attention of the judges in the Toyota Start-up Accelerator awards in 2020. The grant funding provided through the programme enabled Sociability to expand and grow its first version of the app, and forged a growing relationship between the two companies.

Together, Toyota and Sociability have already embarked on several collaborative projects – including working with Toyota’s distributor in the UK (TGB) to map the accessibility of its headquarters, as well as to feed Sociability’s insight and experience into the new design of Toyota’s retail spaces so that they can be more accessible and welcoming to disabled employees, stakeholders, guests and visitors. More recently, Sociability has been supported by Toyota Mobility Foundation to partner with KINTO UK in Derby, UK to launch a pilot Mobility-as-a-Service platform that can better support disabled travellers to move around the city. 

Toyota Startup Awards Demo Day Opens in new window
“What we're really trying to do at Sociability is give people back that peace of mind so they can go out and do the things they want to comfortably and confidently.”
Matt Pierri – Founder, Sociability

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