Background  - author, idea, accessible world and traveling around.

My name is Stipe Splivalo (37) and I live in Zagreb, Croatia. I work as a web designer and have been in interactive design and media industry for 15 years. I use wheelchair and I often have problems entering buildings like cinema, coffee shops, restaurants and many other places that should be available for everyone.

Two years ago I was on my trip to Amsterdam and it was virtually impossible to plan my sightseeing. I had no accessibility info and all available data was from people who does not understand my condition so lots of “accessible places” like Madame Tussaud’s weren't really accessible for me. Museum was very crowded and I had problems entering and moving around with my wheelchair. I didn't see anything and I could hardly wait to get out. It would be great if I could read a review by someone with similar condition that has been on that spot and reviewed it as place that should be visited on less crowded day.

I called 2 of my friends and said "Let's make it".  Soon after we started a project "travabled.com" - world without barriers, which is most important project I've been working in my career and I would really like to see it spread worldwide, to serve and help the global community of disabled travelers.

The project

Travabled.com is an online and mobile phone service that would offer trusted advice from real travelers with disabilities that have been on the spot and have gathered so needed accessibility information.

Every individual can search for accessible places, book a hotel or a restaurant table, add comments, photos, grades - and thereby evaluate level of accessibility or gather information and media for desired destination. Also, users can mark places where they have been with their wheelchair and participate in making our community of barrier free places across the globe.

Why we need your help?

The concept of the project is fully done (design, architecture, rules) what we need to do now is to develop  fully functional online and mobile phone platform. If we manage to achieve more than 100% of funding we will transfer it to another part of our goal: to gather as much as possible existing content about disabled places from around the world.

The financial goal of the project is the sum of all these activities based on cost inputs we gathered:

• Online platform (the central website)  – 12% of funds
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android – 8% of funds

If we reach more than 100% funding:

• Database development and other tech costs (integration and similar) – 35% of funds
• Content generation – 65% of funds:
  • Hire 5 content administrators (all with disability so we support employment of people with a physical handicap but able to work via PC and internet )  - input of existing and available accessible places, with focus on hotel and restaurants in first phase – 2 for 2 year period and 3 for one year
  • Hire 2 content and user comments administrators and quality assurance managers – in order to ensure all information is valuable and honest

These funds would enable us to build the platform and to create unified worldwide database of all accessible places - free for all disabled travelers around the globe, fully accessible via Internet.

Will this project make a difference?

We are sure about it – our passion and web experience tell us so. We sincerely hope that you share the same feeling and will contribute with any small amount you can or just share this to your friends – this is also very important, besides investment, we've chosen Indigogo as concept of funding so as many people would hear about this initiative – our potential users, hotel and restaurant owners, global community of people with disability. It is also a matter of getting people to think about the importance of accessibility in travel industry.

Commitment of Travabled project goes further – we've decided to always hire a person with a disability as project employee or outsourced resource (exception would be made only if there would be no qualified candidate).

The Impact

Database with all accessible places around the Globe, free to all to access – you will be able to plan your trip, help others with your review, use it on the go on your mobile phone, reward with promotion owners  that made their assets accessible and motivate others to do so in the future. This sounds great to us, we hope you share the same enthusiasm!

Other Ways You Can Help

Please share this to all the people you know!  Tnx!