Google Maps Increases Visibility of Wheelchair-Friendly Locations

Source: Tim Hardwick, MacRumors.com

Living with a physical disability comes with its handful of challenges, whether you use a wheelchair, walker or any other assistive device. One challenge involves going to locations where you don’t know if wheelchair-accessibility is guaranteed or not. The situation is more important given COVID-19, where some of us have to go out for essential tasks like grocery shopping or picking up medicine, sometimes not knowing if our local market or pharmacy is wheelchair-accessible.

Luckily, Google is currently rolling out an update for its Google Maps app that aims to make it easier for wheelchair users to get information about the accessibility of locations.

By enabling the app's Accessible Places feature, users can benefit from increased visibility of businesses and places of interest on the map that are marked as wheelchair-accessible, including whether a location has accessible seating, restroom facilities, or wheelchair-friendly parking.

To enable the Accessible Places feature, follow these steps:

• Launch Google Maps on your iOS device.
• Tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.
• Tap Settings.
• Select Accessibility.
• Turn on Accessible Places.

Once that's done, users should see a wheelchair icon next to any place with accessible facilities. Tap a location to see more information.

You can read the rest of the article by visiting: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/22/google-maps-accessible-places-feature-enhanced/