How to write helpful reviews for people with accessibility needs

[DrShaunak]

Whenever I visit California I stay at this hostel

@AriMar Thanks for sharing this post. 

Recently I visited San Francisco and I stayed at this hostel. I'd love to share some accessibility pictures. 

India, the country where I live is not a disability friendly country. Be it roads, trains or buses, offices - people are not very inclusive when it comes to people with disabilities. So when I see any accessibility features available in an area I quickly update those info in Google maps and tell others to do so.

[DshottDennis]

@AriMar good reminders

I mostly take photos of any wheelchair signs or other helpful signs for any physically challenged people.

Other entrances or lifts nearby yes I will add those to my reviews.

[bhaskar_arin]

@AriMar

Thanks for sharing the information

Its very very helpful info to write the reviews

[Safdarrai]

Hi @AriMar thank you for sharing your very important and helpful article in the community about how to indicate wheelchair parking, place while reviewing the location.

[RomanSyed]

Thank you @AriMar for your great post about review. This post is very helpful for me and  others .

[KarenVChin]

Fortunate to live in a state (California) and country (U.S.) that mandates public places, streets, buildings, stores, restaurants, businesses, sidewalks, etc. be disability or mobility friendly - part of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The US federal law started in 1990. It's been easy for me to include photos and write about it in my reviews.

Shopping carts for disabled adults to use while shopping at grocery store, Trader Joe’s, Danville, CA

 It is something I took for granted until I became active here in the online Local Guides Connect Community and saw what other Local Guides are posting here and sharing their stories, such as Nigeria Local Guide @EmekaUlor or when  Kenya Local Guide @InnocensiaO asked me "why are the "yellow tiles" in every sidewalk corner" last year during LGSummit 17 in San Francisco?  The answer:  The "bumps" are to help visually impaired people to "feel" the corner or the dip to the ground level of the street to help them be able to walk across the street unassisted.  And if you use a walker, wheelchair, or push a stroller (Pram) like me having the  "dip" makes it very easy to get across the street independently with ease.

@ErmesT has shared many mobility-friendly experiences here on Connect, including one that a person in a wheelchair can easily go and see the nature for themselves with ease.

Cheers,

Karen

[ErmesT]

Thank you @AriMar for this important post. My mom is a disable, she use a rollator for walking.

So my aim is to try to locate beautiful places, natural feature, where to go for a walk with her.

Places like this, for a walk in the nature, close to home

or this one

Trying to make her life easyer helped me to start to pay attention to the accessibility of every place, trying to locate parking, ramps, lifters in shops and restaurants.

In doing this, sometime I can discover something special, like this one "A path for wheelchair at 1600 meters above sea level". Are you referring to this one, @KarenVChin?

Recently I have reached SVTP status, for better documenting this kind of natural features

[KarenVChin]

Yup @ErmesT! That is the post I was thinking about.

Cheers,

Karen

[Kalamkakan]

Thanks for sharing your IDEA @AriMar

[EmekaUlor]

@AriMar your posts are inspirational and thought provoking. In the past few days you have kept us engaged across the world with some great writeup especially the one asking LGs to mention the Special friends they've met on Connect and LG programme. Our community group really went memory lane and we appreciated the conversation.

Accessibility in a 20 Storey building in Lagos

About 15% of the world's population (one billion) have some form of disability. In Nigeria, it is estimated that over 20 million citizens are differently enabled. 

Accessibility is important for everyone, not just People Living With Disability (Differently Enabled). It is also a human right provision globally. @KarenVChin and @ErmesT live in a more friendlier communities with relevant laws to enable unhindered movements for PwD. We look forward to such situation in Nigeria soon, as the National Assembly has passed a law in this regard, awaiting the Presidents assent.Emeka and John

John

My friend John inspired me to become passionate about disability;  the Local Guides community and  Google Maps provided a great platform to pursue this initiative easily. In May 2018, I committed to hosting Accessibility  meet ups monthly(Nigeria Accessible Walk) for the purpose of adding repeated information that would be useful to our differntly enabled  citizens. So far, we have hosted five meet ups in  three States - and four different cities- Mbaise, Owerri, Awka and Lagos.

We have also started adding buildings with accessible trails on the Google Map. See the list 👉 Wheelchair Accessible Buildings NAW

Let's do more! 

Xoxo

Emeka 

(Accessibility Champion)