Google maps adds accessibility information if available

Among the many uses of Google Maps is to search for information about a local, an office, etc. to which you plan to go. Opening hours, opinions of other users, photographs… all this helps to choose a site or decide when and how to go. For many people it is also important to know the accessibility of a place or building, because some member of the group may need it. Now Google makes it easier for us within Google Maps.

Accessibility everywhere on Google Maps

In order for Google to show us how easy or difficult to access a place is, this data must exist. At the moment this is not the case in most large cities, much less in less populated and central places. There are already initiatives that have collected this data from records and contributions from their users such as Wheelmap, which collects information on wheelchair accessibility. The incorporation of Google is great news since, apart from having that information at hand, it is possibly joining the efforts to record this data.

Business Insider interviewed one of the members of the Google team that promoted this initiative. The Californian company has a policy in which its employees must spend 20% of their time experimenting on separate projects. They started this year by adding questions about accessibility to the local surveys of users of the Maps service, and now they are starting to show them in it.

Aren't all buildings supposed to be for years?

The regulations require that new buildings follow specific rules and criteria for accessibility. On the other hand, the buildings prior to the entry into force of the regulation must only adapt certain aspects at the time of a reform. Hence, the reality of those who require these measures in buildings is not yet projected. The more information they have, the better they will be able to choose the premises that have taken letters on accessibility.