The bay nobody sees: why Volta added accessibility filters
Six months into building Volta, a message landed in our inbox from Sarah. She'd just spent twenty minutes circling a car park, found a charger that looked perfect on the map, and discovered when she arrived that the accessible bay next to it was occupied. She couldn't charge. The charger itself was fine. The infrastructure was there. But the map hadn't told her what she actually needed to know.
The problem hiding in plain sight
When we started aggregating the UK's 40+ EV charging networks into Volta, we built the obvious stuff first. Map view. Cost calculation. Journey planning. All the features that make sense when you're designing for the average user on an average day.
But there's nothing average about needing an accessible bay. If you drive with a disability that requires one, a charger without adjacent accessible parking isn't a charger at all. It's just a marker on the map that wastes your time.
We realised we were showing drivers the whole network, but we weren't helping the people who needed something specific. And we weren't going to fix that by accident.
What happened after we listened
Sarah's message wasn't unique. It was one of several conversations we had with disabled drivers, carers, and accessibility advocates who'd started using Volta. They all said the same thing: the app helped them find chargers fast, but it didn't help them find chargers that would actually work.
We could have ignored it. We could have said: that's a nice-to-have. But it wasn't. For certain drivers, it was essential.
So we added accessibility filters. You open Volta, tap the filter menu, and you can now show only chargers with accessible bays nearby. It's a small feature on the surface. But it means that when you're planning a route or searching your local area, you're only seeing locations that will actually work for you. No dead ends. No wasted journeys.
Integration, not afterthought
Here's what we didn't do: bolt it on as an afterthought. We didn't put it in a settings submenu, five taps deep, with a checkbox that half the team didn't know existed.
The accessibility filters sit in the main filter interface alongside network type, charger speed, and cost range. That sends a message. Accessibility isn't a special interest. It's part of how the map works, period.
We also spent time mapping the data properly. One UK charging network's definition of an accessible bay isn't always the same as another's. Depths vary. Some have nearby accessible toilet facilities. Some don't. We're still refining how we capture and display this information because, honestly, the data quality varies across operators. But we're committed to making it accurate because the alternative is letting drivers down.
Who this helps, and why it matters
Volta serves different kinds of drivers. Daily commuters hunting for the cheapest rapid charger. Rideshare drivers who need to charge quickly between fares. Fleet managers optimising routes across their vehicles. Private charger hosts in our community marketplace earning from their home charger.
Accessibility filters serve all of them, but they're especially important for disabled drivers, carers managing transport for family members, and older drivers who benefit from accessible infrastructure. These aren't edge cases. They're real users with real needs that we'd missed.
Beyond individual drivers, it matters for the broader EV transition. When we talk about making electric vehicles mainstream in the UK, we're talking about making them accessible to everyone. That means the map has to work for everyone, not just the able-bodied driver charging at a suburban mall.
What we're still learning
Building accessibility filters also taught us something about how we approach the product. We realised we'd been thinking about chargers as abstract points on a map. But a charger is only useful if you can actually use it. That sounds obvious when you say it out loud, but it wasn't the first thing we thought about.
We're still improving. The data we get from networks varies in completeness. Some operators track accessible bay locations in detail. Others don't. We're working to standardise how that information flows into Volta, but it's slow work. It matters too much to rush.
What we know is that every feature we add now, we ask the same question: who does this exclude? It's not foolproof, but it's better than not asking at all.
When you're building a map for millions of drivers, it's easy to design for the majority and patch in edge cases later. But accessibility isn't an edge case. It's just good product design. Does your app show you everything you actually need to know before you arrive?