Sociability Mapping Day in Leeds!
Sociability
Apr 28, 2023
On Friday 14th April, the Sociability team headed to Leeds. Now, we may be biased as Gem, our content manager is a local - but we do love Leeds. We’ve found particularly that Leeds is generally quite accessible for wheelchair users. With a large but generally flat city, it was great to map so many places onto the Sociability app.
Accessible venues for coffee in Leeds
Whilst mapping in Leeds we definitely found some gems in terms of accessibility to go for a coffee.
Huge thank you to Trekinetic!
A massive thank you also, to Trekinetic for sponsoring the day. Trekinetic specialises in the production of ultra-light, state-of-the-art wheelchairs designed for daily use, whatever the terrain and we got to try one out first hand! We loved seeing everyone testing out the wheelchair in real-life situations like on cobbled streets, busy pathways and open spaces like Trinity Leeds.
“It was great to meet the amazing team at Sociability and spend the day getting to know some of their users. We love the Sociability message around improving accessibility and see a great synergy between our businesses. Taking the Trekinetic GTE to Leeds and back from London on the train was also a really good experience. Pleasing to see that it coped with the tight spaces on the train!” - Ed Spindle, Trekinetic.
How to meet other disabled people
Finally, it wasn’t just the city that made Leeds so great - it was the people too. We met both old and new faces which was fab. We had regulars Azariah, Damian and Ali. We also had new faces, Ayad and Benny (who came all the way from Preston!). Mapping days for us are not just about finding local accessible places, but about bringing like-minded people together. A lot of people who join mapping days are newly disabled and find meeting others in a similar position so helpful. We think Elle summarised it perfectly saying
“It’s given me a community of people I didn’t know I needed. People with answers to questions I wouldn’t have even known to ask. I’m beyond grateful for each and every one of them”.
Let us know, if you’d like to join a mapping day! Head over to our Community page to learn more!
