Go Genie

What is it?

Go Genie is an online tool from Pesky People that provides accessibility information to help people plan their journey to a destination or venue. Information is drawn from crowd sourced contributions and the site is aimed at those whose situation means that they, or the people they care for, have quite specific access needs - such as the blind, wheel chair users, deaf, elderly or those recovering from injury.

How the idea developed

The idea for Go Genie grew out of innovator Alison Smith's own experiences looking after her mother who has mobility difficulties. Organising days out would often take hours of planning and did not always result in a good experience - not being able to get on trains, get into buildings or find accessible basic facilities like toilets were common problems for them. 

Through Pesky People, a start-up that works to improve digital access and inclusion for the deaf and disabled, Alison knew that there was a groundswell of similar opinion, so set about developing a solution to the problem using social media as the platform.

After presenting at City Camp London Alison won initial funding to develop Go Genie at City Camp London and this enabled her to bring in the specialist technical skills she needed to help her develop the platform. She also went on a business skills course to develop to develop the skills needed to start thinking about this solution as a business.

The project received a further £20,000 through Nesta's Reboot Britain programme to develop and test a prototype platform. This was tested initially in Shropshire in partnership with the Arts and Culture team at Telford and Wrekin District Council. 

The Go Genie project aimed to stimulate and develop a network of people who could contribute and use information about accessibility in public spaces. However, although the platform is now available nationally it has run into difficulties as it has tried to scale, because building a community of users to populate the site with accessibility information has proved to be a significant challenge.

Latest news (as at 27 August 2012) 

Alison is currently seeking funding to further develop and refine the Go Genie prototype, expand the range of accessibility information that is available, and grow the user base of the platform. As part of this the Go Genie team are trying to bring on board local and national organisations to bring in members who might support the tool and contribute content.  

Want to know more?

Alison Smith, Director @ Pesky People - alison@peskypeople.co.uk