Interestingly enough, the new feature was born out of an old Google policy. It’s called the 20 percent policy, and it basically dictates that users should spend 20 percent of their working hours thinking up personal projects that could be of benefit to the company. You might be surprised to hear that some of Google’s biggest products came out of the policy, including Google News and Gmail.
The team behind the new Maps feature was led by Rio Akasaka, Google Drive product manager, who spent about a year putting together the accessibility guidelines for Maps.
The new feature isn’t all that surprising — Google has been asking people questions about stores they recently visited for quite a while now, and one of those questions is whether or not a location is wheelchair accessible.
Not only will the new feature be useful for people actually in a wheelchair, but also others with disabilities, parents with a stroller, and the elderly.
To see for yourself whether or not a location is wheelchair accessible, just look up a location in Maps, hit the description, and check under the “amenities tab.” Not everyone has access to the feature at this point, so if you can’t see it yet, you may just have to wait a little longer.
