Google Maps becomes more inclusive with the Accessible Places option

There are about 130 million people with disabilities in the world, and for these people organize a trip or even a simple move it has a few more complications. Which are often only discovered when it’s too late.

As he points out Googlewho thought of some solutions, available from today on Maps, “imagine planning to go to a new place, making the journey to reach it and arrive and then get stuck outside, not being able to sit with the family or not being able to access the toilet”. The idea of ​​the Accessible Places function, active in over 40 million places around the world, including Italy, is precisely to avoid all of this.

How to use Accessible Places

It’s enough for it to work activate the setting Accessible places in the Google Maps app: on the profile of the various businesses (shops, restaurants, bars, supermarkets, etc.) it will be displayed a wheelchair icon if the entrance is accessible with a wheelchair, or it will be crossed out if the place is not accessible.

This way it will be possible to know in advance if (for example) a restaurant has accessible seating, restrooms and parking. Not only that: it is also useful if you want to avoid stairs because you have a stroller, heavy luggage or use a trolley.

With the help of Local Guides

Obviously, much of the information is provided by owners of the various commercial activities, but not only: the single ones people can contribute by accessing a local’s Maps page, clicking About and then Edit features. From Google they have just remembered that “this function was created with the support and the commitment of over 120 million Local Guides (here to register for the program, ed)who have contributed over a billion wheelchair accessibility updates.”

The firm also stressed that the arrival of Accessible Places in all countries of the worldand not only in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, where it has been present since 2020, is “a milestone in our journey to build a better, ever more inclusive and more useful map for all”.