Wheelmap.org is an online, worldwide map for finding and marking wheelchair
accessible
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...
places, developed by the German nonprofit organisationSozialhelden e.V. Anyone can find and add public places to the map and rate them according to a simple traffic light system. The map, which is based on
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...
, was created in 2010 by a team around
social entrepreneur
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of ...
Raul Krauthausen to help people who use wheelchairs or wheeled walkers to plan their days more easily. Parents pushing a baby carriage can also benefit from the Wheelmap information. Currently almost 600,000 public places worldwide can be found on the map. About 300 new places are added on a daily basis. Wheelmap is available on the website and as an app for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design l ...
.
Tagging
Anyone can mark
Points of Interest
A point of interest (POI) is a specific point location that someone may find useful or interesting. An example is a point on the Earth representing the location of the Eiffel Tower, or a point on Mars representing the location of its highest m ...
(bus stations, restaurants, cinemas, museums, banks, government offices, etc.). according to their wheelchair accessibility on Wheelmap. A simple
traffic light
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traf ...
system is used to rate the wheelchair accessibility of a place: The markings are inserted by using the simple
traffic light
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traf ...
system:
Places that have not yet been rated on their wheelchair accessibility are marked gray. They can be marked quickly and easily by anyone, without prior registration. Registered users can add photos or comments with further details about the wheelchair accessibility of a place Registered users can add images to a location and write a comment with further details about the wheelchair accessibility of the place.
''Wheelmap.org'' focuses on the relevant accessibility information and is not limited to wheelchair specific locations, such as therapy centers or toilets. Instead, wheelchair users should be include in everyday life, focusing on public places of daily life including cafes, clubs, theaters, and basic public services, including
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
, government offices and banks. Similar to Wikipedia, the user enters the information such that everyone helps to grow this tool from the bottom up.
Awards
* 2010 The INCA (Innovative and Creative Application) Award
* 2011 Vodafone's Smart Accessibility Award
* 2011 Werkstatt N - Award of the Council for Sustainable Development (Germany)
* 2011 As one of the ''365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas'' (founded by the federal government and the BDI
* 2012
World Summit Award
The World Summit Awards (WSA) is an awards system that selects and promotes local digital innovation to improve society. WSA is an international platform focused on broadcasting cutting-edge examples of how Information and Communications Technol ...
(section mobile-inclusion & Empowerment)
* 2013 Zedler-Price for
free knowledge
Open knowledge (or free knowledge) is knowledge that is free to use, reuse, and redistribute without legal, social, or technological restriction. Open knowledge organizations and activists have proposed principles and methodologies related to the ...
(Wikimedia Germany)
* 2014 The first European Award for Social Entrepreneurship and DisabilityThe-first-european-award-for-social-entrepreneurship-and-disability Retrieved 14 September 2014 (title ''Highly Commended by the Jury'' to Raul Krauthausen for the project ''Wheelmap.org'')
facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
Handicap International
Humanity & Inclusion (formerly Handicap InternationalOn January 24th 2018, the global Handicap International network changed its name and became Humanity & Inclusion. This was done "to communicate more effectively on the diversity of its activiti ...
(de)
Wheelmap at the site of the German Wheelchair Sports Association (a part of the
National Paralympic Committee Germany
National Paralympic Committee Germany ( ger. Deutsche Behindertensportverband e.V. (DBS)) is responsible for Germany's participation in the Paralympic Games.
The DBS represents rehabilitation sports, popular sports, and professional sports.
Foot ...
Video clip
Video clips refer to mostly short videos, most of the time called memes, which are short videos of silly jokes and funny clips, most of the time coming from movies or any entertainment videos such as YouTube. The term is also used more loosely to ...
B.Z. (newspaper)
''B.Z.'' is a German tabloid newspaper published in Berlin by Ullstein-Verlag, a subsidiary of Axel Springer AG. As of 2010, it has a circulation of around 200,000.About wheelmap.org -
article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
in ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...