After a devastating earthquake hit Italy in 2016, Ermes wanted "to give to the people that [had] to rebuild...a picture [of] how the place was before the earthquake." Through the Local Guides community, he organized meet-ups to reconstruct maps of ravaged areas. The group updated business information, collected photos, and reviewed geolocation data. It was not only a critical way of helping his neighbors, but also, in his words, a way "to create an historical memory of this, a collective memory."

During one of these mapping trips in 2017, Ermes located a mountain path that was designed to be accessible. Ermes's mother had a physical disability. He thought of how much she would enjoy the trail, and the idea for Accessible Life was born.

"We started just to look for accessible places," he explained. "We don't want just to have an accessible restaurant. We don't want just to have an accessible shopping place." Instead, the project focused on finding accessible outdoor spaces like parks, trails, and riverbanks. With support from the Google Earth team, Ermes designed a system that allows users to select a particular place on the globe and find accessible sites nearby.

Accessible Life made its debut in the spring of 2021. Ermes receives contributions from all over the world. He collects the information and publishes it to Google Earth after a vetting process. To date, there are sites mapped in six countries across four continents. Accessible Life brings together Ermes's three main concerns: the environment, accessibility, and love for local places.

Want to learn more about this incredible Local Guide? Check out his contributions on Google Maps and follow his profile on Connect.