Wheelchair-bound Airbnb executive adds his humane touch
Srin Madipalli has travelled the world in his wheelchair.
Now, as head of Airbnb’s accessibility efforts, he wants to help many others do the same. Mr Madipalli has spinal muscular atrophy, a rare disorder that affects nerve cells and causes muscles to waste away. Finding accessible places to stay was a constant frustration. So in 2015, Madipalli and a friend founded Accomable, a website that connected disabled travellers to verified, accessible properties.
At the same time, Airbnb was facing complaints from some disabled guests, who said its listings were not detailed enough. Airbnb wanted to do better, so late last year it purchased Accomable. Mr Madipalli, a geneticist and lawyer with an Oxford MBA, is now Airbnb’s accessibility product and programme manager.
Here Mr Madipalli discusses his new role and what Airbnb can do to improve travel for the disabled. Comments have been edited for length.
Q What is your role at Airbnb?
A I am responsible for making our platform as accessible as possible. Our first step has been to make it easier for people to find an Airbnb listing that meets their needs. We used to only allow guests to search for listings that were wheelchair accessible. Now, we have 21 new accessibility filters so guests can search for the listing that works for them.
How did the acquisition by Airbnb affect your mission? Accomable was a success, but we were a small company. At Airbnb we’re taking accessibility into the mainstream. Around 19 per cent of the US population has some form of disability – that’s more than 56 million people – a market we simply couldn’t cater to as part of Accomable where we had around 1,600 properties on the platform. We’re working with the owners of these properties to move them over to Airbnb. We’re also tapping into Airbnb’s community so they can make their homes’ accessible features more visible.
Beyond adding filters, what more can Airbnb do for the disabled community?
We want to ensure accessibility is at the heart of every element of our business, whether it’s accessible homes, experiences or any other new specially adapted product. I have used a power wheelchair all my life, so I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to travel with a disability and how nervous many people in our community get. Part of my role is to ensure our community has accessibility information they can trust, and I’m working across teams on a number of projects around this.