Photo-backed accessibility profiles so visitors know before they arrive

Photo-backed data capture, barrier prioritisation, then a live public profile. Those are the three steps Trek IQ uses to map the physical accessibility of a venue. The platform works. Avery Cote built it to replace manual site audits with public, photo-backed accessibility profiles, "so that visitors with diverse needs know exactly what to expect before they arrive."

Trek IQ recently won a regional pitch competition, graduated from its first incubator cohort, and has onboarded early-stage partners across hospitality, tourism and community spaces "to move our tech from theory into real-world venues," he says.

“Having lived alongside people with disabilities my entire life, I am leveraging this golden age to crack a decades-old problem: accessibility.”

Avery Cote

Today's founders, he says, carry "a higher calling: using business as a vehicle to protect both people and the planet."

"I have lived through three generations of disability in my own family," he says. Across those generations, he has watched family members face mobility challenges in different ways and at different stages of life. "Watching people I love forced to calculate every single step, curb, and doorway just to navigate the world changed everything for me," he says. "I saw firsthand how a lack of reliable, transparent information traps people," he adds.

He just graduated from Nova Scotia Community College.

He cares, he says, because "access shouldn't be a guessing game, and families shouldn't have to experience anxiety just trying to go to a restaurant or hotel."