When you have fully functional legs and feet, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are more than 65 million people around the world that do not have that luxury and are actually dependent on wheelchairs. Navigating different places on wheels is not an easy task, and so Google wants to do their part in helping make the world a better place for those who are not fully mobile. Google Maps is encouraging its local guides, and everyone else who wants to help, to share information about which places have accessibility options.
The Local Guides is a community that brings information to Google Maps, and now they are encouraged to add wheelchair accessibility attributes to their neighborhood or places that they have been to. Google is expecting that their tens of millions of users will answer at least three related questions every day for two weeks so as to bring at least two billion answers to people concerned with this kind of information. This can also be useful for parents who bring strollers or those who use walkers or anyone with impaired mobility.
If you want to contribute information, make sure that your Location History on Google Maps is turned on. In the upper left menu, you can see “Your contributions”. Just tap on “Answer questions about a place” and then indicate which places you’ve been to in the past are wheelchair friendly. You can also search for places that are looking for this information and if you know the answers, then make your contribution.
Some of the Local Guides in various places around the world are even meeting up to answer these questions. You can also organize a walking tour around a specific area to contribute to the accessibility information that Google Maps is looking for.
SOURCE: Google
