Accessible-parking data matters. When a bay is mislabelled, too narrow to open a car door, or has been quietly removed, the cost is almost immediately felt by the Disabled community. It costs us valuable energy, time, and spoons, often leaving us a long way from where we needed to be.
As a Disabled software engineer, I understand code, AI, user experience and my own lived experience. But my vision for the app was for it to be useful to as many Disabled people as possible. So, I asked Tilting the Lens, a fantastic Disabled-led accessibility consultant, to undertake paid research. Their sample was 12 Disabled drivers and passengers across the UK, Ireland, and Spain. They rigorously tested the platform across both iOS and Android, running through two complete phases and in multiple languages. I learned so much from the research and it expanded what I thought the app could be, and what our shared data could be used for.
For any council, business, or venue, the opportunity to point audiences, customers and employees towards accurate data, and also having a space to listen to community feedback has not existed. It's for these reasons why I built Close to the Door.
The app is built using open-source and publicly available data. That benchmark of 136,000 accessible locations is a starting point that has already been added to by many, many users. As a founder, I've benefited from the generosity of others, and I want to share what I've learned in the hope it might spark other ideas, new businesses, and greater advocacy.
Here is the honest look at what the research found, how we re-engineered the platform based on their feedback, and why this data is a vital commercial asset for forward-thinking organisations.
Why we tested (and what we broke)
A painted wheelchair symbol on the tarmac tells you next to nothing about whether a parking bay will actually work for you. Real accessibility is dictated by the granular details: exact space width, dropped kerbs, room to safely deploy a tail-lift, or whether the access aisle is routinely blocked. Conventional parking data completely ignores these realities. Before asking anyone to rely on our map, I needed to know the code held up for the people most affected when it doesn't.
Our tester cohort covered a wide range of distinct access needs: full- and part-time wheelchair and power-chair users, walking-aid and prosthetic users, individuals with chronic illnesses, neurodivergence, learning disabilities, and Blind or low-vision drivers and passengers. They were tasked with setting up the app, finding a space, saving locations, rating experiences, and crowdsourcing new data.
In Phase One, the core concept was incredibly well received — 100% of participants found the app useful and straightforward to set up. They praised our privacy architecture, particularly the choice to open Terms and Privacy in the device's native browser to preserve their custom accessibility settings, alongside the option to restrict location sharing to only when the app is active.
"On my screen, I see a button titled 'Explore', where it shows nearby parking spaces. From a disabled point of view, this is fabulous. We need a really short user trajectory towards the desired functionality of the app. As a disabled driver and passenger, I can quickly find where it is accessible."
— Phase One Participant
However, as a developer, Phase One also highlighted some critical technical failures:
- UI layout shattering: When users scaled up their device fonts via native Dynamic Type settings, our layouts completely broke at larger text sizes.
- Navigation traps: Testers lacked an intuitive, clear way to navigate back to a previous screen.
- Search discoverability: The original placement of the search bar made it frustratingly difficult for users to locate quickly.
The re-engineering phase
Every piece of friction reported by the community became a direct development sprint. Before launching Phase Two, we overhauled the app's interface and navigation architecture:
- Responsive layouts: We refactored the UI front-end to ensure fluid scalability, meaning the layout remains perfectly intact even at the largest text settings.
- Intuitive navigation: We implemented clear, standard back-navigation across every screen.
- Upgraded search UI: We shifted the search bar to the absolute top of the screen and integrated native voice-input APIs for hands-free utility.
- Granular data schema: We updated our data fields to let users record specific parameters like exact width, overhead clearance, and kerb access, rather than just marking a space as "accessible".
- Real-time status reporting: We added a review schema allowing users to rate spaces, leave feedback, and flag bays as temporarily unavailable due to roadworks or misuse.
By treating the community as active co-designers, our performance metrics improved dramatically between the two phases:
Suggesting an edit to a space
83% to100%
Contributing a brand-new space
60% to100%
Trusting the location map
57% to100%
"It's very useful because you can edit all the information and thus ensure a more accurate update."
— Phase Two Participant
Built with a global architecture
Because our independently conducted research spanned the UK, Ireland, and Spain, it forced us to build an app that understands regional nuances. For instance, a Blue Badge holder is frequently restricted to a four-hour limit in parts of the UK, whereas local regulations in Spain often allow a Disabled driver to remain parked in an accessible bay for several days.
To handle this without confusing users, we localised the app across English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Chinese. The backend logic inherently adapts to regional variations, ensuring that users always receive trustworthy, compliant data no matter where they are driving.
The business and council case: the power of accurate data
For too long, the logistical burden of mapping access has been unfairly placed on Disabled individuals. Close to the Door changes that by turning high-quality accessibility data into a clear commercial and operational asset for councils and businesses.
Partnering with Close to the Door offers organisations distinct advantages:
Unlocking consumer spending power: The spending power of Disabled consumers and their households is immense. Ensuring that your accessible parking infrastructure is accurately mapped directly drives customer acquisition, welcoming a massive, loyal demographic that traditional maps leave behind.
Attracting top-tier talent: Accessible parking is an essential workplace utility. Providing highly accurate, verified bay data heavily assists in the recruitment and retention of Disabled employees, removing the stress of the daily commute.
Enhancing public brand sentiment: Our users routinely flag when infrastructure is failing, such as bays being mistakenly converted into EV charging or parent-and-child spaces. By utilising our Vendor Portal, your team gains access to structured, community-checked information. This allows you to identify precise gaps in your provision, track improvements, and visibly respond to community needs.
Meeting regulatory duties out of the box: Close to the Door is built to strict WCAG 2.1 AA engineering standards. With robust screen-reader support, Dynamic Type compatibility, high-contrast modes, and reduced-motion settings, our platform gives public-sector partners the compliant foundation they need to fulfil their official accessibility duties.
"Maybe the review data creates 'winners of the month' for the parking spaces themselves... if a space is in poor repair or unusable but near an essential service it could get down-voted and reported."
— Phase Two Participant
Partner with us
Close to the Door currently features 136,000 accessible parking locations globally, and our community adds more every single day. We firmly believe that high-quality accessibility information should remain entirely free for the individuals who rely on it to navigate the world, and uniquely powerful for the institutions that stand behind it.
Let's work together to make spaces genuinely accessible. Talk to us about a partnership today.
Talk to us about a partnership
Cheers,
Ryan
Founder, Close to the Door
Research conducted independently by Tilting the Lens. Quotations are drawn from participants across both research phases and reproduced with permission; participants are identified only by research phase to protect their anonymity.