Snowball Community | Accessibility App - Dorset Association of Parish & Town Councils

Snowball Community | Accessibility App

11 December 2023

We were contacted this week by Simon Sansome, founder of Snowball Community and were immediately struck by how useful the app would be for our members and those businesses and venues in their communities.

Dear Councils and Councillors

I’m Simon Sansome founder of Snowball Community, (known as Snowball). You may be aware of us as we are the biggest disability app in the world, but I need your help.

We (Snowball) have been active on Apple and Android for about 14 months and we have had almost 40,000 reviews from people all over the UK and if you look on the app there will most likely be places from your areas already on the app.

Last week we won the Santander national award, last month won the Digital Tech award at the Disability Power 100 and I was named in the top ten as one of the most influential people in the UK.

I will explain Snowballs main feature and then how we can help one another. Snowball is a free review platform, think TripAdvisor for the disabled community, you can add places, leave reviews and say if you will go back. It is there to help people like myself with a disability to access my local community but also things like, days out, holidays, staycations, pubs, restaurants, town halls, blue badge car parking bays, accessible toilets, churches and more.

Snowball had an excellent response from the Church of England when I appeared on BBC Radio 4 Yours and Yours a few months back with hundreds of churches being reviewed. We also featured on Steph’s Packed Lunch a few weeks ago.

What we are also doing is collecting massive amounts of data so that we can advise councils where access can be improved in their community. Here is one example. A number of volunteers spent a few hours leaving Snowball reviews of their towns, in this case Loughborough and Syston in Leicestershire. With the data collected we can advise Leicestershire County Council, Charnwood Borough Council and Syston Town Council on issues in the area regarding access, how to help business and things like housing, planning and other council services.

What they did is they visited business in their towns took a picture on their phone, added a place using the app and then left a review on the Snowball app. The review does not need a lot of detail, it could just be a few sentences, things like is their automatic door, a disabled accessible toilet, ramp access, it is the person own options on access.

What this did was produce data on where is accessible in the towns and where’s not. The data said that 48% of business in Loughborough compared to 25% of accessible business on Syston. Data like this could also assist with investment in the area.

So, what I would like if this is possible for your council to discuss Snowball at your next council meeting, promote Snowball in your area and get the community involved, including local businesses but also, if possible, review your area so that we can help one another create an equal and inclusive community.

Thank you for your time.

Simon Sansome

Founder of Snowball Community.

If you have any questions, please contact out wonderful Snowball Support Team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..