Voice, developed by tech company iAccess Innovations, allows those visiting downtown Raleigh to quickly share feedback via mobile device, on parking ease and accessibility, and everything from sidewalk access to how close the space was to their destination.
Launched June 16, Voice collects user input when people scan a QR code posted near an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-designated parking space in downtown Raleigh and complete a brief survey. Their responses are funneled into the iAccess dashboard. A member of the Raleigh Parking Division reviews and evaluates that feedback and fixes the parking space as needed.
The central goal, Tony Howard, senior transportation analyst for the city Parking Division, said, is to identify what’s working well and apply those best practices as officials expand the accessible parking program across Raleigh.
Raleigh’s iAccess rollout follows years of effort to install ADA-designated on-street parking spaces, starting with 16 in 2018 and expanding to 28 today. There were early gaps in their approach, including a lack of firsthand insight from people using the spaces, Howard said, which led to a search to fill that void.
“In late 2022, a resident reached out to say her parking ramp couldn’t deploy properly — which allows her to remove herself from a vehicle — because of our surface pavers,” Howard said. “We took that information and worked to figure out a solution to how we could get information like this back to city staff so that we can make better accessibility decisions.”
Their search for a better feedback mechanism came full circle at a 2023 Ford summit, where Raleigh city officials were introduced to iAccess’ feedback model — a concept that he said immediately resonated with the city's goals.
“It was a real light bulb moment,” he said. “This is the program that we wanted — something very quick, convenient, and easy for our users to access and provide that real-time data back to the city so we can make those real-world differences.”
The initiative is entirely city-funded, which Howard said reflects the city’s commitment to collecting better feedback and addressing parking accessibility with more precision.
Built on the Google Places Application Programming Interface, the iAccess platform iAccess Life was created by Atlanta-based founders Brandon Winfield and Sayeed Mehrjerdian, who built it as a consumer app where people could rate and review the accessibility of businesses. With Voice, Raleigh is using a new version of the platform that allows businesses and cities to create customized feedback forms and display signage inviting people to anonymously share their experiences with accessibility at specific locations or services.
The company’s mission is deeply personal for Winfield, who became paralyzed as a teenager. After facing the frustration of arriving at places without ramps, narrow doorways or inadequate parking, he recognized the need for a tool that could help people with mobility challenges better plan and avoid barriers when possible.
“If I’m struggling with accessibility and I’ve been hurt before and know how to navigate, there have to be so many others discouraged from going out altogether,” Winfield said.
His experience became the foundation for a broader mission: to use real-world feedback to advocate for better access and, ultimately, more independence for people with disabilities.
On the city side, Howard said one of the rollout’s biggest challenges has simply been spreading the word.
“Building awareness takes time and thoughtful communication, especially when introducing a new tool like this,” he said. “It's important that they not only know the program exists but also feel confident that their feedback will be heard and used to make meaningful improvements because often people think, 'I’m just going to take this survey and it ends there,' but we really want to utilize the feedback provided to make improvements.”
The city plans to review results from the initial implementation phase over the next year, according to Howard, measuring participation and evaluating what type of infrastructure changes or operational shifts are surfaced. The success of the iAccess initiative in six months to a year will be measured, he said, by both data-driven outcomes and community impacts.
There are currently no set plans to expand the platform beyond ADA parking, but those results could change that.
“We’ll continue to collaborate with other departments to determine whether there’s a desire to move into other areas of the city,” he said.
For the iAccess team, company co-founder Mehrjerdian said AI integration is on their road map. A long-term goal is to use large language models to surface trends in user feedback, flag problem areas and recommend improvements based on real-world data to cities and businesses.
From Mehrjerdian’s perspective, data can be a game-changer in raising the priority of accessibility-related projects — especially for agencies where such efforts often fall to the bottom of the list. Structured insights like those iAccess is providing to Raleigh could help governments make smarter use of their limited resources, he said, ensuring that improvements happen where they’re needed most.
