Zoo Atlanta Taps Local Startup To Make Visits More Accessible
iAccess Life, an Atlanta-based accessibility startup, is ready to help more people find their voice.
Its new B2B product, aptly called Voice, is a patron feedback tool that helps visitors rate, review, and research locations based on the accessibility levels at different locations they visit. Through curated QR codes, visitors can share their anonymous experience back with venues.
Zoo Atlanta, the forty-acre space with over 1,000 animals located in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood, is one of the early adopters of Voice.
Visitors to places like the Flamingo Plaza or the Nourish Café will be able to provide feedback around parking and entry, accessibility of guest pathways and animal habitat viewing, and restroom, food service, and gift shop accessibility.
Accessibility Meets Tech
“Zoo Atlanta strives to be a Zoo for All, and inclusivity is one of our organization’s key values. This means understanding challenges and barriers experienced by our guests,” said Raymond B. King, President and CEO, said in a statement. “Rather than guessing what those challenges are, we can now get direct feedback from our community that will help us provide a more accessible and inclusive Zoo experience for all those who visit.
Zoo Atlanta, along with its internal Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion Committee, will use this information to evaluate needs and find ways to enhance accessibility for guests with mobility, hearing, or visual impairments.
The goal is to help ensure that Zoo Atlanta is listening to their visitors and refining their experience for all customers.
“A lot of times the chain of operations from suggestion to solution is broken and not efficient. The Zoo will now be able to be proactive with their clients instead of reactive,” said Brandon Winfield, CEO of iAccess Life.
Winfield told Hypepotamus that he secured a “warm introduction” to the zoo’s head of facilities through his connections in the Atlanta tech ecosystem.
“He and the team were pretty adamant about wanting to improve their offerings for everyone so things moved forward relatively quickly,” Winfield added. “It’s an honor to be a part of such a staple of the city that I grew up in. It means the world to see that organization/venue in what I believe to be the best city, step up and be proactive.”
The iAccess platform has been growing steadily since we last caught up with Winfield and the team in 2022. Outside of the Zoo Atlanta partnership, Winfield said that the startup has partnered with UnTours Foundation Fund, an organization providing affordable and flexible investment capital.
“They are helping us support inclusive and accessible travel for all. We look forward to utilizing their investment to provide working capital and future development of the Voice by iaccess Life product,” Winfield added. “We have also finalized our reseller agreement with Passport Parking and anticipate being able to offer this product to all of their clients soon!”
