Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Starting today, Google Maps will feature a new mode called Accessible Places that, when toggled on, will more prominently show wheelchair accessibility info, the company announced on Thursday. It will be rolling out gradually, the company says, for both Android and iOS.
“When Accessible Places is switched on, a wheelchair icon will indicate an accessible entrance and you’ll be able to see if a place has accessible seating, restrooms or parking,” Google explains in a blog post. “If it’s confirmed that a place does not have an accessible entrance, we’ll show that information on Maps as well.”
Google designed the feature for the 130 million global wheelchair users, of which 30 million reside in the US, and it built it using the…