Trying to join her friends at a restaurant on a recent Friday required real effort from Allyson Mallory.
First, she had to find a handicap-accessible parking space at a grocery store across the street. Then she had to maneuver her electric wheelchair across snow-covered sidewalks — or try anyway. Finding they had not been shoveled, she had to turn around, go back and find a better path.
All that to get to a pizza joint designed to be wheelchair-friendly. Ordeals like that have led to the creation of a new app that offers accessibility reviews of local businesses open to the public.
The app, called Roll Mobility, was designed by four people — three Coloradans and another expert based in the UK. Launching this month, it gives people in chairs information about the accessibility of different spaces before they go out.