About Pootle

What is Pootle?

Pootle is an accessibility-first route discovery and navigation platform designed to help people explore the outdoors with greater confidence.

Whether you're using a wheelchair, mobility aid, pushchair, or simply looking for clearer accessibility information, Pootle helps you discover routes that are right for you before you set off.

Our goal is simple: to make the outdoors more discoverable, more accessible, and easier to enjoy.

Why We Started Pootle

Like many people, we love spending time outdoors. But when searching for accessible routes, we found ourselves piecing together information from multiple websites, guidebooks and forums, often with inconsistent or incomplete accessibility information.

Through trial and error, we discovered something surprising:

Accessible routes exist. The problem is finding them.

There are thousands of paths, trails and outdoor spaces that are suitable for people with different accessibility needs, but the information needed to find and confidently use them is often fragmented, outdated or difficult to trust.

People can spend hours researching:

Gradients
Surfaces
Gates and barriers
Steps
Parking
Toilets
Trail conditions

And even then, many still set off unsure whether they'll be able to complete the route.

That uncertainty discourages exploration and keeps people from enjoying places they might otherwise love.

We started Pootle because we believe nobody should be excluded from exploring the outdoors simply because they couldn't find the information they needed.

What Makes Pootle Different?

Accessibility isn't an afterthought at Pootle – it's the reason we exist.

Every decision we make, every feature we develop and every route we add is guided by one question:

Will this help people explore with greater confidence?

Pootle has been designed specifically to help people:

Discover accessible routes
Understand route conditions before travelling
Navigate with greater confidence
Share lived experience with others

We bring together:

Accessibility-focused route information
Community knowledge
Route verification
Practical accessibility insights

into one trusted platform.

Built With the Community

From day one, we've worked closely with our community of Pootle Pioneers to ensure we're building something genuinely useful.

Our testers include members of the Disabled Ramblers, wheelchair users, mobility scooter users, pushchair users, and people with a wide range of lived experience of accessibility challenges.

Their feedback has shaped every stage of development and continues to influence the direction of the platform today.

We're committed to building Pootle with our community, not just for it.

Meet the Founders

Charlotte

Hi, I'm Charlotte.

If I'm not working, you'll usually find me running in the hills, exploring new places or generally spending as much time outdoors as possible.

The idea for Pootle came about when friends and family began facing accessibility challenges when trying to get outdoors. Whether it was navigating with a pushchair, using a mobility aid or simply needing more confidence about a route, it quickly became clear that finding reliable accessibility information was far harder than it should be.

The more I looked into it, the more I realised that accessible routes weren't necessarily the problem. The real challenge was finding them and knowing whether they would be suitable before setting off.

That simple frustration became the starting point for Pootle.

I believe everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy nature, discover new places and get off the beaten track, regardless of their mobility or accessibility needs.

Chris

Hello, I'm Chris, Someone who also loves the outdoors, especially seeing it from above! Whether that's from a Sailplane or a paraglider - I love to introduce others to the air and teach them how to manage an aircraft.

After knowing Charlotte for a year, she mentioned an idea that resonated with me. Finally an idea that has some true purpose. So I set about making a prototype, a month later, we had a meeting so I could show her what was possible. The rest writes itself and now here we are with a solid foundation and a lot of positive (and critical) feedback that makes all the late nights and continuous testing worthwhile.

I'm so glad to be part of the journey, and I'm excited to see where it takes us over the coming years.

Our Vision

We want to open up people's worlds.

We see a future where nobody is excluded from exploring the outdoors because they couldn't find the information they needed.

As Pootle grows, we want to:

Increase route coverage across the UK
Improve and standardise accessibility information
Support organisations working to improve outdoor access
Build confidence for more people to explore nature
Reduce the time and effort people spend researching accessibility information
Create the UK's most trusted accessibility-focused outdoor route platform

Join Our Journey

Whether you're looking for your next accessible adventure, want to contribute routes, share feedback, or explore partnership opportunities, we'd love to hear from you.

Use our contact form and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.