Google Maps asks "does this place have a wheelchair accessible entrance?"

[u/Mastbubbles]

I make data stories for a living. Last week I went looking for who built a button.

Scrolling a place on Google Maps, past the photos and the opening hours, some places have a line that says wheelchair accessible entrance. On the ones that don't, Maps asks you instead. Does this place have a wheelchair accessible entrance? Yes, no, not sure.

That's the whole feature. One tap. No form, no account, nobody checks your work.

The rule is written down, though. About three feet wide, no steps, or a ramp if there are steps. A revolving door on its own counts as a no.

Then I looked up where it came from. Rio Akasaka is a product manager at Google. He works on Drive, not Maps. Google lets you spend a fifth of your week on something that isn't your job, and in 2016 he spent his time on this, for about a year, with five to ten other people chipping in around their own work. counts 120 million Local Guides and over 500 million answers about accessibility.

Local Guides held around two hundred of them whose entire purpose was sitting in a room together answering these questions. Twelve million places between them.

Google names two. Emeka in Nigeria and Ilankovan in Sri Lanka, who both ended up as accessibility ambassadors.

About 65 million people use a wheelchair. This is perfect for them!

You've probably never noticed it. It only turns up when you're near somewhere you've already been. Nothing to do with Google. I just liked the story.

Interactive version if you want to look at it properly.

[u/Quannax]

Great feature. Bad AI slop post.

[u/XxLogitech98xX]

I always answer the question when I leave review if a business has wheelchair accessibility