How many times did yo go out with your friends or your partner, thinking to enjoy a night in a  trendy public place and, once you got there, you realized that your night wasn’t going to be that happy-go-lucky, due to one too many architectonical barrier? Wouldn’t it be great to have the chance to choose a public place being aware in advance of its accessibility? It’s possible, thanks to Google Maps. Joining the Local Guides program, each Maps user will have the chance to point out, in a few clicks on his smartphone or desktop, the accessibility of the local places in his city. Isn’t it wonderful?

Picture ©Google

HOW TO JOIN local guides?

Joining the  crowdsourcing Local Guides program is easy:

• Go to Google Maps (from your browser or, if you use the smartphone, from the app)
• After having logged into your Google account (if you haven’t done it already), choose from the drop-down menu “Your contributions“
• Then, you’ll be invited to join Local Guides: click on “Start” to accept and specify the city you live in
• In order to share your reviews about the accessibility of public places, you’ll have to activate the Location history, clicking on the appropriate link on your device
• Now, you’ll be invited to share a review about the places you visited and, if you want, to answer a few questions about their accessibility. For instance, if that place is accessible to people using a wheelchair, or other (you can find some examples here).

Picture ©Google

For each review you’ll share, you’ll earn some points and, bit by bit, you’ll reach a higher level. The points you’ll earn will enable you to access advantages such as the chance to have new features in advance. But, most importantly, you’ll have the satisfaction of doing something good for other people, with a little effort. Since a more accessible world isn’t good just for who has any disability, but for the whole community!