I’d like to know when and if the voice guidance =pedestrian modus for visually impaired within
google maps cfr. https://www.blog.google/products/maps/better-maps-for-people-with-vision-imp
airments/
and the accessible places for wheel chair users feature cfr. https://blog.google/products/maps/wheelchair-accessible-places-google-maps/
will be available for European Google maps users.
I live in Belgium and I don’t see these features. Will they be available in
Europe? If yes, when might we expect them?
Update: we are february 2022 now, I still don’t see these accessibility settings/options within Google maps. Update2: in 2023 the wheel chair info became available, the pedestrian modus seems not being available in Europe.
@InaS and @@@DeniGu or @: Any info from Google would be apreciated.
Welcome in Connect @KattyGeltmeyer , and thank you for asking, because this is an answer I would like to know too.
I know the pandemic have slowed down everything, but I think it is time to move forward and to give to accessibility an High Priority.
The blog about voice Guidance is from October '19, and the one by @sashabg77 is one year old so yes, I think is time to move to EU, and to give the opportunity to you and others to rest the features on field, so thanks again for asking.
The Google Maps team is constantly working on improvements. However, in case you have a suggestion, please don’t hesitate to share it with us in the Idea Exchange section on Connect.
I am going to move your post to the How-tos section, the place where Local Guides ask questions related to Connect and Google Maps.
The feedback from this community is helping Maps and the program to improve, and I really hope you will receive an answer, because all Europe is waiting for the two features to be rolled out.
An year ago I’ve tried to simulate a walk in Venice, setting the walk as “accessibile for wheelchairs”, and the information I’ve received were totally wrong.
After that I started to document the accessibile bridges, but a lot of work needs to be done, also in the Local Guides side, for being able to improve the quality of the data and the amount of the information in Maps.
We need to create awareness, for focusing the contributions
Hi @ErmesT , thanks for this info. I think you didn’t use the accessible places thing but used the info for wheel chair users that’s already available? The accessible places (the blog post I refered to) isn’t still available in Europe.
Creating awareness is one point concerning accessibility, but there’s another important thing: accessibility isn’t something facultative, a shell you can add if you please: most architects seem to see it as such: Universal design principles aren’t the fundamentals of the architecture studies at the university, it’s an optional subject, I’m afraid.
As long as architects, developers etc. are considering accessibility as an additive thing and not as the basis of every project, people with special needs will face difficulties. If people with special needs would provide info to Google concerning barriers etc. they face, or report good examples, google can use this info for sure. But a few people deliver info to localguides programm, so, Google should promote it’s own crowdsource projects, too.
Accessibility isn’t only a need for people with disabilities, everyone can benefit from it: the young mum with the child in the ??Buggy, the old lady with the ??rollator, the tourist with the heavy trunk, … can benefit if the steps for entering a shop are low, if busses and other public transport decrease the gap between platform and vehicle, … the distracted professor who forgot his glasses wil benefit from texts that are easy to read (big fond, good background color, …) I can give more examples as illustrations for the fact that accessibility isn’t only for disabled people. And all these principles are also working for accessibility of software and apps. The problem is that I am already convinced of this, but the others aren’t.
@BorrisS you suggested I would tag a Google moderator or someone of Google. Who do you suggest? and @sashabg77 if Google needs more info for implementing these features within maps for Europe, which info is needed and how can we European users help Google to give Europe these 2 features within Google maps? Thanks for the info. Best, Katty
@khairin992 : this conversation is not about your question. But for answering your question: the localguidesprogramm is a volunteering project, you won’t get any money etc. for providing info to Google maps. If you want to earn money: why don’t you try out “google opinion rewards”?