Finding appropriately adapted holiday homes can be difficult for families and individuals who are either personally affected by disability or who care for someone that is. Accomable solves this problem by ensuring vendors provide high quality images and information to help users decide whether the property is appropriate.
The company, based in London, UK, was founded by entrepreneurs Srin Madipalli and Martyn Sibley. Friends since childhood and regular travellers, Madipalli (who now serves as the company's CEO) and Sibley are both wheelchair users due to a disability called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Frustrated at the lack of travel information available for disabled people, they launched Accomable in the summer of 2015. The company received funding from the Skoll Foundation and Oxford University (where Mr Madipalli studied) via an initiative to support ventures that deliver social impact.
Since then Accomable has grown into one of the largest platforms of adapted properties with a presence in 34 countries. The company was also a part of an award-winning documentary that premiered in December 2015 at a UN sponsored film festival in New York City. The film charts Mr Madipalli's efforts to teach himself to code in order to build the first version of Accomable.
To expand into Australia, Accomable partnered with Have Wheelchair Will Travel(HWWT), a website and active Facebook community for travellers with a disability founded by Julie Jones, whose son is a wheelchair user. HWWT has the largest and most active accessible travel community in Australia and Ms Jones is one of the country's leading voices in the campaign to improve access to the tourism sector.
“Nobody doubts that Accomable and HWWT will face many challenges solving this problem,” said Ms Jones. “But both ventures are founded by people who have overcome major personal challenges so are well-qualified to tackle this issue.”
www.accomable.com
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