Guidepost represents a step toward equity for independent travelers with disabilities.
Our target user group is solo travelers, who may have different visual, audible, or physical abilities.
Slide 3: Market Validation
Now, to shed some light on the scale and importance of the issue at hand, we want to share a few statistics.
Last year, there were 27 million travelers in the United States with some type of alternate-ability who took a total of 81 million trips which generated $58.7 billion in revenue.
Slides 4,5,6 Accessibility Conflicts
Those 27 million travelers represent about 6% of domestic traveler spending, but in a recent study, 65% encountered major obstacles with airports, while 72% encountered major obstacles with airlines.
These statistics are related specifically to air travel, but it serves to illustrate that there are some serious barriers facing travelers with different abilities, in this country and abroad.
Slide 7: Problem Statement
Our problem statement is: How might we address the lack of accessibility in the travel industry and remove the barriers facing members of the alternately-abled community? We will resolve inconsistencies in researchable information and physical environments.
Slide 8: Meet The Team
And this is the team that’s taking on the problem. We are Charlotte, Jongin, Matthew, Tara and Taylor. We’re an ambitious group of optimists, with a diverse set of skills, backgrounds and abilities, that we think makes us a great fit for this challenge.
Slide 9: Our Solution
The solution we’ve developed is a planning tool designed to empower disabled people with the technology needed to travel independently.
Slide 10: Primary Users
We worked with a diverse group of potential users while developing this solution, and found that we could meet the needs of people with several conditions, without compromising the agility of our development. So this first iteration of Guidepost is designed for people living with alternate physical, visual and auditory abilities. Our hope is that as the product gains traction, we can expand our reach, to meet the needs of people living with other conditions, not covered in this initial release.
Slide 11: GuidePost hero shot
This is Guidepost, your all-in-one travel planning companion.
Slide 12: Meet Carter
To help guide us navigate the app, meet Carter. He’s an active, 35 year old adjunct professor from Phoenix. He loves to travel, but due to a spinal injury, he is a wheelchair user and the inconsistency of accessibility in the travel industry - especially air travel, is a huge barrier for him. The uncertainty he faces while traveling could see him delayed, denied access or injured.
It’s a burden that is familiar to almost all alternately-abled travelers, and it’s where Guidepost finds its most critical need: Empowering it’s users to plan their trips ahead of time, with special attention to accessibility - and reducing the uncertainty that comes with travel.
Slide 13: GuidePost - Set Up
This is how Guidepost works. Users download the app, and can immediately start customizing the experience to best match their abilities. So a user with vision complications might choose to enlarge their layout or select a dark or high contrast mode. Once the app is specified for the user, they’ll fill out an abilities profile that will help Guidepost recognize and flag potential issues for the traveler as they plan and execute their trips.
Slide 14: Set Up Continued - Accommodating Visual Abilities
Here you can see some of that setup configurability at work, showing the enlarged layout option, and a couple different color configurations that tend to suit some common vision conditions.
Slide 15: Set Up Continued - Accommodating Hearing Abilities
And here’s another example of a setup option, showing how a user can decrease background noise while en route.
Slide 16: Trip Planning
Once a user is set up, and they’re ready to plan a trip, Guidepost serves as their digital accessible travel agent - to help them navigate their adventure without the stress and uncertainty of whatever unexpected hazards might be lurking.
Slide 17: Trip Planning
It’s as easy as telling Guidepost where you’re headed (In this case, Carter is going to Seattle)
Slide 18: Trip Planning
What mode of transit you’re using to get there. (You can see we’re currently set up for plane, car, bus and train)
Slide 19: Trip Planning
And connecting any additional information that may help with the planning process, like flight numbers, or confirmations
Slide 20: Plan Ahead - Virtual Walkthrough
Guidepost then builds the trip, giving time estimates based on the user’s abilities, and making them aware - far in advance, of any accessibility issues they may face along the way - routing users like Carter around staircases, steep inclines, or areas without sidewalks. Guidepost compiles all of this critical data into screens that are customized for our users abilities, and easy for them to navigate.
Right away, travelers using Guidepost are more prepared for their journey, and can be less anxious about accessibility issues ruining their trip.
Slide 21: Route Guidance - Map + Live View
In addition to being a planning tool, Guidepost acts as a travel companion for our users, while their trip is underway, helping them navigate spaces efficiently, and avoid accessibility obstacles. And it’s doing all of this in real time, using an XR overlay on their smartphone.
So as Carter navigates the Seattle airport, Guidepost is showing him how to get to the baggage claim, the elevators, and the accessible bathroom, while avoiding the renovation construction that’s blocking the normally accessible route to the bus that he needs to catch. When he gets off the bus, he’s got a couple blocks to wheel, so guidepost leads the way, showing him the route on-screen, and warning him of any accessibility issues he may be about to encounter, like this broken up sidewalk that might otherwise hang him up, or knock his luggage off his lap.
Slide 22: Create Community - Drop a Pin
This is all possible, because Guidepost provides the ability for users to “drop pins” as they encounter accessibility issues - identifying them as inconveniences or hazards.
So when another wheelchair user encountered the broken-up sidewalk, she dropped a pin, marking it as a potential hazard. A few days later, Carter’s rolling down that same stretch of sidewalk, his vision is a little compromised, because he’s got this suitcase on his lap, but he avoids disaster because some hero with a similar ability profile pinned that hazard, and Guidepost let him know about it.
We see this ability to drop-pins, and help out similarly-positioned members of differently-abled communities as a big driver for the success of this platform. If you remember us discussing back at the beginning, that this burden of uncertainty is known to every differently-abled traveler, you can begin to understand the sort of pride that overcoming these obstacles as a community might generate.
Slide 23: Market Positioning
We see our product generating significant value, for an underserved market. There appears to be a clear need, and demand for accessible travel apps, but no market leader has emerged yet. Currently, differently-abled travelers are using some functionality from a handful of popular travel apps, and we are seeing an opportunity to consolidate some of those functionalities into Guidepost - packaging them into a cohesive product that suits the needs of users with visual, hearing and physical impairments in the near-term, with expansion into other markets being a real possibility in the future.
As with all software that compiles and aggregates user data in order to provide a customized experience, security and privacy issues will have to be navigated carefully. It’s our promise to users that no identifiable information about them will be sold or compromised in any way.
Slide 24: Business Model
This is an ambitious project, with our MVP involving multiple complex functions, addressing the needs of a diverse group of users. To get started, we are aiming for 1 million dollars of startup capital to get us through our first year.
We are planning to source that initial funding through a combination of public grants, made available for projects that address accessibility in our initial launch city of Seattle, and federal funds made available by the FAST Act.
As participation grows, the product will begin generating revenue through targeted, location-based advertising. So we imagine services like accessible hotels, or restaurants that may be located along a user’s planned route being big contributors here.
Slide 25: Launch Strategy
After we secure funding, and have developed the first iteration of Guidepost, growing our user base may be our most critical challenge. The plan is to launch first in Seattle, Washington - where we not only have strong leads on access to public funding, but also recognize a deep need for our product, in a city that is known to be challenging to navigate, combined with a tight-knit community of support groups and communication and resource networks created by our users.
We believe the best method for connecting users to our product is through referrals from friends and family - so a big part of our launch strategy is creating a local presence in our launch cities - reaching out to support networks, email lists and local influencers, to spread the word that there is a new, free product out there that can change the travel experience for members of these alternately-abled communities, and bring some joy and reassurance to the process.
Slide 26: Budget
Of that first million dollars in funding, we’re predicting that around $400,000 of it will go right into fixed startup costs, like development, design and setup.
After that, our first year operating budget will be dedicated to paying five employees, marketing, maintenance, and cash for unexpected expenses and future growth.
Slide 27: Closing
In closing,
25.5 million Americans age 5 and older have self-reported travel-limitations.
We are asking the Puget Sound Regional Council to consider Guidepost as a grant candidate so we may address the council's goals of assessing & improving transit access conditions.
Together, we can make our city a beacon of inclusion for these community members.
Slide 28: Fin
Thank you!
