Wheelchair Accessible Places – New Feature by Google Maps

Google has just announced a new Google Maps feature wheelchair Accessible Places. Just imagine you as a differently-abled person plan to go somewhere new and wait outside, not able to sit with family or access the restroom. It’s a bad experience for a wheelchair user, isn’t it? There are 130 million wheelchair users worldwide and more than 30 million Americans who are not able to use stairs.

To solve this problem, Google has announced a new Google Maps feature that will let you know the wheelchair accessible places as easy as looking for the address. You can check whether a destination is wheelchair accessible or not before you go.

To do this, you have to update your Google Maps app and enable the “Accessible Places” feature in your google maps accessible settings under settings. When Accessible Places is enabled, a wheelchair icon will be displayed on the locations you are checking, after clicking on this icon, you’ll be able to see if that place has accessible seating, restrooms or parking.

With this update, people using iOS and Android can also contribute accessibility information that will benefit people using wheelchairs, especially in this time of COVID-19, so that they won’t be stuck outside the pharmacy, restaurant, or grocery. To contribute, click on the listing you know, go to “about” section, under “describe this place” select the accessibility information and submit.

As per Google, Google Maps has wheelchair accessibility information for more than 15 million places around the world. Listings’ owners have also helped by adding accessibility information to their business accounts to help users needing stair-free access.

The Accessible Places feature available only to Google Maps users in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States and many more countries on the way.