“Mi discapacidad me ha abierto los ojos para ver mis verdaderas habilidades. No tengo una discapacidad, tengo una habilidad diferente”.
Robert M. Hensel.
It often happens to us that we are sitting with someone and do not understand what he/she is saying, but we are well aware of his/her feelings, we can feel his/her passion.
We experienced the same in Latin America Virtual Meet-up.
Accessible Latin America was our sixth consecutive virtual meet-up of Accessible Series, in which we met many new friends from eleven different countries, and absolutely it was a great meet-up in which we discussed a lot about accessibility.
We started our meet-up with the introduction of mine & @JaneBurunina (Meet-up Hosts). And then @Jesi invited each attendee to introduce themselves. Here We both (me and Jane) agreed on the same that this meet-up couldn’t be successful without the great support and help of Jesi, who engaged herself with all our friends in meet-up all of the time.
After the introduction, we started the slides, in which we included Google maps reviews/Accessibility photos from Jesi and @marcorp , who explained each review and photo in Spanish to Attendees of the meet-up.
With answering the questions and Explaining Accessibility contributions on Google Maps, Jesi briefly talked about new feature on Google maps about Accessibility, and the post which we recently read on Connect Making Google Maps more accessible on Global Accessibility Awareness Day , because many of local guides were wondering about that how people with disabilities could see places where they can call accessibility friendly , Jesi mentioned about tab, the new logo feature that came out on GAAD, and well explained
#oneaccessibility initiative by Local Guides to wonderful attendees of the meet-up.
Our friend @AlexandreCampbell was with us all the time, and many times he assisted local guides in meet-up and chat with his kind gesture.
Ernesto from Mexico, gave some great points like comparing the bad accessibility situation in Mexico to other countries like the US, and he was wondering about Maps being only about wheelchair accessibility or also other kinds. And he had the question
“Do you have any kind of basic list to check for every place that we visit? For instance: 1) Wheelchair access 2) Braille Menu 3) People who can speak sign language an so on”?
Gabuu from Bolivia shared her view
“if there’s a way to report it as a Local Guide, for example if the restaurant is in google my business and we write a review about accessibility when it’s not completely accessible maybe could be a way that google my business send a message to the owner as a recommendation for the reviews’”
María Eugenia Gallardo @EugeGallardo from Argentina said: “It is very important that the local guides give the precise information of each place in the event that, for example, there is a wheelchair ramp that is very inclined or poorly built, or that there is a toilet with accessibility but to get there, there are many obstacles or it is difficult to access”.
@BeatrizAguilar came up with these two questions, and I want to invite my #oneaccessibility friends if they can explain it
"Is taking photos of the keyboard braille also important for the topic about accessibility in google maps? Or what other characteristics are there in a place that we should highlight so that the topic of accessibility improves Google Maps?
And How to write a comment about a place that has a toilet with facilities suitable for the disabled but that, to get to the toilet, you have to cross an obstructed or narrow corridor?"
Further she shared her view about Accessibility
" The Local Guides give their opinion, take photos and help to inform about accessible and comfortable places for people with restricted mobility. Making public roads and sites accessible to everyone is mandatory in almost all countries. But what happens when a ramp is poorly made or is too steep so it is dangerous to roll on it? What happens when a public highway has wheelchair ramps, baby cars or shopping carts and those ramps are hampered by informal vendors? In most shopping malls there are parking spaces for the disabled. What happens to the citizens who use these special posts without having any disabilities? It is all a matter of politeness."
Ricardo @ @LightRich asked Jane, Jesi and me what was your motivation to start writing about accessibility?
Local Guide from Santiago Chile, @CristianPaulo said that ever since he knew about accessibility features on Maps he has given information about the new accessibility of subway stations in his city. Their subway stations had a log of stairs, but they beban installing elevators so he added that info to Maps
Alejendra @Ale_003 shared view that she wasn’t very familiar with the accessibility in Google maps so she wanted to know How does people to find accessible places on Google maps (Jesi answered her briefly )
Marco mentioned the idea of having Maps create something like specific kinds of maps to see only accessible places.
We can say, it was a great meet-up, we met very kind , enthusiastic and dedicated people it, because we could feel that they had a tremendous desire to learn about Accessibility on Google maps, and as we can see, some great points shared by attendees, and some great questions, these all are the great reason to learn many new things for all of us.
We would like to say thanks to my Friends, who are with us in the journey of the Accessible meet-up series Muhammad Sulaiman, ,Ravindu ,Kasun , Anshuk Mitra , Vikram Bishnoi, ,Rosy Kohli and Riya Mathews , who attended Accessible Latin America meet-up too
Here are the names of wonderful local guides from 11 countries who attended Accessible Latin America meet-up with Big Thanks.
“Muchas Gracias Amigos”
Alejandra Arreguin (Mexico)
Alexander Campbell (Brazil)
Anshuk Mitra (India)
Beatriz Aguilar Ostos (Columbia/Venezuela)
Cristian Paulo Arancibia (Chile)
Ernesto GZamora (Mexico)
Ezequiel Aguzin (Argentina)
Gabriela Calvi (Bolivia)
Jesica Lichtensztein (Argentina)
Kasun (SriLanka)
Marco Rios Pita (Peru)
Maria Gallardo (Argentina)
Muhammad Sulaiman (Pakistan)
Ravindu Samarasinghe (SriLanka)
Ricardo L Monjaraz (Mexico)
Rosy Kohli (India)
Riya Mathews(India)
Ruddy Rivero (Bolivia)
Vikram Bishnoi (India)
Here you can enjoy some beautiful moments of Accessible Latin America Virtual Meet-up by this Google Photo Album
Alexandre, see you in 
.
Accessibility Contributions on Google maps.
