Why we built Roam Pal

Roam Pal Guide started with a simple, stubborn frustration: when you have access needs, planning a trip is harder than the trip itself, and the information you're given often isn't even true.

My story

I'm Allan. I'm registered "severely sight impaired", which, as a social worker who believes in the social model of disability, is a label I'd quietly take issue with, but there we are. I have no 3D depth perception and limited vision, and I use assistive technology every day. I'm also an Advanced Practitioner social worker, working with children with disabilities, and I chair a disabled supporters' association. So access isn't a feature I read about, it's how I live, and it's the people I spend my days alongside.

Like a lot of disabled people and their families, I'd plan a day out and hit the same wall every time. The access information was scattered across a dozen websites, buried three clicks deep, months out of date, or, worst of all, quietly wrong. The plain result is that it takes us far longer to plan a trip than it should. And when the information is wrong, a false "step-free" can leave you stranded.

So I built the tool I needed. That is how we build everything at ADAI Digital: tools built for everybody, with disabled people fully and inclusively front and centre, never bolted on the side.

What we believe

Honesty before everything. We will never call a place "accessible" to look good. If we haven't checked, we say "not yet checked", never "inaccessible". A missing answer means nobody has gathered the information yet, and we'd rather tell you that plainly than guess.

One experience for everyone. Access isn't a separate section for "disabled people", it's woven into how every place is described. Parking, toilets, step-free access and terrain sit together, because a wheelchair user, a grandparent with a sore knee and a parent with a buggy all want the same information. This is an app anyone can use.

Your trip, your data. There are no accounts and no tracking. Your plans, notes and needs stay on your own device, and guides and plans you have already opened keep working when your phone has no signal. Map tiles still need a connection while offline-map permissions are being finalised.

Free. The people who most need honest access information shouldn't have to pay to get it.

Give people the truth about a place, and the dignity of deciding for themselves. That's the whole idea.

Who's behind it

Roam Pal Guide is made by ADAI Digital, ADAI Digital Ltd (company number 17242851). Roam Pal began in the UK; the company's registered office is Suite A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, England, IP28 7DE. The registered office is a statutory address, not a customer visiting address. Our plain mission is to use technology to make lives better, especially for people who are too often designed around rather than designed for. Money is fuel for that, not the point of it.

If any of this speaks to you, or if we've got something wrong, please tell us at admin@adaidigital.co.uk. Reports from disabled travellers are the most valuable feedback we get.

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