COMMUNITY FEATURE ROLL MOBILITY TEAM FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: MEREDITH BERKOWITZ, LAURA SPORRER, JOE FOSTER, RACHEL ZOELLER. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN ROLL MOBILITY PAVES THE WAY FOR A MORE INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE FUTURE BY FRANK DEANGELI ONE OF DENVER’S BIGGEST DRAWS TO LOCAL RESIDENTS AND VISITORS is its easy access to outdoor recreation, charming mountain towns, and natural beauty. However, for anyone who uses wheelchairs or has mobility issues, some obstacles to accessibility begin in areas much closer to home — at bars, cafes, restaurants, office buildings, and residences. Roll Mobility, a Denver-based app and accessibility tool, is seeking to make its hometown, as well as cities across the world, more navigable for wheelchair users and other individuals who face mobility challenges. Officially launched in February of 2023, the app allows CREDIT: GILES CLASEN community members to submit reviews, photos, and videos of different businesses, listing their strengths and weaknesses in making their places of business accessible to all. These submissions help to paint a picture of a location’s overall ease of access for community members with disabilities, who then can make decisions on where to live or socialize, based on the ratings and reviews from similarly challenged individuals. 6 DENVER VOICE June 2024 Joe Foster, one of the founders of Roll Mobility, explained that the idea for the app started almost three years ago as written notes on the back of a napkin. “We said ‘Well, this must already exist. We must just not be Googling it correctly.’ We were just kind of blown away that this gap existed.” Speaking with people with disabilities, Foster found that, typically, options for gauging a business’ accessibility can be limited and are often unreliable. “Folks with disabilities would call and talk to a host to get information on accessibility,” Foster said. “And unfortunately, it sounds like that information was incorrect eight out of 10 times. They’d hear things like ‘We’ve got stairs, but don’t worry; we’ll just carry you up the stairs.’ A lot of adults don’t want to be carried anywhere.” The Roll Mobility app prompts users to leave reviews of a location by filling out a 13-item questionnaire. Eight of the questions are about the facility itself, and five are about the bathroom. These questions include “Are there accessible
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