The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2024–2025
StreetCo's StreetNav routes wheelchair users around obstacles via crowdsourced reports
A Waze-style accessibility map where anyone reports sidewalk obstacles and routes adapt to each user's mobility profile in real time.
StreetCo
the move
In July 2024, ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, French startup StreetCo launched StreetNav, a navigation app for people with reduced mobility — wheelchairs, visual impairment, pregnancy, seniors, strollers — described as a cross between Google Maps and Waze.
The user records their situation and destination; the app returns the best route, warns of obstacles such as misplaced bins and construction, offers alternatives including public transport, and can guide by audio. Every parameter adapts in real time.
The data is collaborative: any user, with or without a disability, can flag an obstacle the way Waze flags police checks, and StreetCo reports 30,000 monthly contributors. Former rivals N-Vibe and Audiospot joined forces with StreetCo to build it.
StreetNav was shortlisted at Cannes Lions 2025 in the Innovation track, positioning community accessibility data as a public good rather than a niche charity feature.
why it works
- Real-time community reports stay current, where static accessibility maps go stale.
- Opening the app to strollers, seniors and luggage carriers grows the data crowd far beyond one group.
- Merging with competitors concentrated expertise and data instead of fragmenting them.
what transfers
Don't try to build the accessibility database alone: let the community that lives the problem maintain it, and open the tool to everyone so it gets used.
what came after
StreetNav launched in Paris in time for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and was shortlisted at Cannes Lions 2025. Its collaborative model — everyone reports, everyone benefits — became the template for its expansion.
references
- STREETNAV — Shortlisted Cannes Lions 2025
- Paris: StreetNav, le "Google Maps" des personnes à mobilité réduite, débarque dans la capitale
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.