On Wheels [Android]

Someone in a wheelchair chooses a restaurant not by their taste or budget, but by the size of the door and how many steps it takes to go in. If there's no accessible bathroom then plans of going out are over. Mobility issues are largely underestimated in our cities, and we set ourselves the challenge to augment accessibility for a daring and brave bunch who love life. A free app was created to register and map points of interest in urban zones that meet the needed requirements for a particular wheelchair, since user can enter their wheelchair size and the app displays only accessible points of interest for their criteria.

Our end goal is to create the accessible-intelligent city of tomorrow. We are targeting different service industries to create smart services for the disabled. Today our aim is to gather support for the next steps. We produced a video that shows the story of the app and ambitions of their creators in order to generate social awareness of the challenge faced by people on wheels so to start fostering changes in behaviors, cities, industries and policies. A side effect is the gain of volunteers who can enrich maps since geo-localized points of interest are entered via anyone using the app.

Providing geo-located information in real-time via mobile enhances the experience of cities best adapted to daily life activities, specially with mobility restraints. For maps to become richer, input is needed in the form of measurements. This is accomplished in collaborative way, since the geo-located measures can be given by anyone who downloaded the app. Exposing the creator's story means potential new beneficiaries, contributors and larger mapped areas. We have started a communication campaign in 2 phases. First in social media towards a widespread audience as to create consciousness around mobility issues and learn about the difficulties people in a wheelchair face everyday. We have released Version 2.0 of the app during mobility week in Belgium and now launched the first stage with the video and url. After our collected shares will be transformed according to results, into a campaign for app development at a second stage.


The conception of the app took place in end of 2014 and continues to move forward. In the ecosystem are currently 2 native mobile apps (iOS and Android), a web app and a Moderator Tool, all running on the IBM Bluemix platform. In March 2015 OnWheels did measuring events with University students to build up initial data. April 2015 a launch party where 150 guests were given wheelchairs to spend the day in. For our current campaign we have set up an url in order to centralize the video and sharing in social channels, helping us to gather data regarding reach, views and shares. It will be online for a period of 3 months.

Right now there are 4500 active users, 22000 measured and verified locations and 15000 parking spots located. The app can be used worldwide, since it uses global maps and is available in 9 languages. After v1.0 launch, the app was #1 in the free travel apps section. The visibility acquired through campaigns and social media can help bring pressure towards policy makers and development opportunities. The video has been launched March 24th, 2016, hoping to reach 100.000 shares.

Hearts in motion - On Wheels App