Wheelchair accessibility information in Google Maps improves via crowdsourcing

Google is making an important change to Google Maps that will help to make life a little easier for wheelchair users and people with other accessibility needs. Last year the company added accessibility information to locations on Maps, but now it is taking things a step further.

Recognizing that it will take a long time to wait for individual establishments to supply information about whether they have wheelchair access -- and even longer for Google to manually check things -- the power of crowdsourcing is being embraced. It's now easier than ever to add accessibility information about places to Google Maps.

By introducing a new method of adding this information, Google is clearly hoping that more users will supply data that everyone can benefit from. At the moment, the new method is only available to Android users, and Google says to use the following steps to add information:

• Open the main menu, and then tap "Your contributions."
• Tap "Uncover missing info" and sort by "Accessibility" to find places around you that are missing this kind of information so you can start filling it in.
• You can also sort by different categories in case you have other information to add as well.

In a blog post entitled "Building a map for everyone," Google Maps product managers Shiva Thiagarajan and Rio Akasaka say:

When you need to find out whether a place you're planning to visit has any of these accessibility features, just find the place on Google Maps (desktop, mobile) or Search (mobile), open the business listing, tap the two-line description, and then scroll down to the accessibility section. From here, you can also add your accessibility and other local knowledge by tapping "Know what features this place has?"

The accessibility attributes you can choose from include: wheelchair-accessible entrances, wheelchair-accessible elevators, wheelchair-accessible seating, and wheelchair-accessible parking.

Google says that it has already added accessibility information about almost 7 million places to Maps, and now contributions can be more easily added by users that number is set to increase.

Image credit: WilleeCole Photography / Shutterstock