AccessNow
Travellers check the AccessNow map to pick restaurants and hotels that other disabled users have flagged as accessible.
ENABLE Model location
What it is
People use AccessNow, a mobile application and web-platform, to search for, review, and rate physical locations such as restaurants, transit stops, hotels, and parks based on their accessibility features. Users contribute data worldwide, thereby building a crowdsourced map that details both accessible and non-accessible destinations. While the primary users historically included people who use wheelchairs or have mobility impairments, the platform’s filters have expanded to support people with sensory, vision, hearing, or other needs, such as finding quiet spaces or gender-neutral washrooms.
Why it matters
This platform functions as a compensation for the systemic absence of reliable, centralized information regarding accessible infrastructure in the physical world. The inability of builders -- such as city planners, business owners, and large commercial applications -- to embed access information proactively means that travelers and community members must rely on crowdsourced data to navigate their lives.
By offering data and filters on specific features like ramps, table heights, or automatic doors, the platform empowers users to proactively plan their trips, significantly reducing the likelihood of encountering inaccessible destinations and thereby improving independence. It also helps raise awareness among venues regarding accessibility as an ethical and competitive factor. However, this community reliance ultimately redistributes the labor of data collection, reviewing, and updating onto disabled people and community volunteers.
Real-world example
Travelers looking for a place to eat or stay often consult the map and filters provided by the application to check for specific accessibility tags, such as whether a location has an "accessible washroom" or an "automatic door". This use of the mapping tool allows individuals to avoid venues that might exclude them, acting as a workaround to the frequent omission of such critical information by the businesses or local authorities themselves. The process is fueled by community events, known as “MapMissions,” where teams actively gather to rate and verify locations in real time.
What care sounds like
- "Our urban planning department committed to auditing and publicly reporting accessibility for all publicly-funded buildings before their completion, thereby fulfilling requirements for accessible infrastructure documentation".
- "The venue manager is trained to upload detailed, verified information about ramps, door widths, and washroom dimensions directly to their listing service as standard operating procedure".
- "We designed the primary mapping service filter interface so users can reliably search by specific needs, like 'quiet spaces' or 'gender-neutral washrooms,' embedding this data point into the core service requirement".
What neglect sounds like
Neglect stems from the systemic failure of external builders (e.g., cities, businesses, major travel platforms) to proactively embed accessibility information, forcing users to rely on compensatory tools like AccessNow.
- "I was told the entrance was accessible, but found three steps at the entrance".
- "It's not legally required for local business permits to include accessibility audits, so that information is not available in the public city database".
- "We only designed the basic location data for drivers and pedestrians, so accessibility features for mobility users were not included in the feature requirement list for the mapping application".
What compensation sounds like
Navigator-side compensation details how end-users actively overcome barriers in the built environment by leveraging the mapping tool, emphasizing both the burden of the extra work and the resulting autonomy gained.
- "I use the map to check for specific accessibility tags to plan ahead and avoid inaccessible destinations, which works as a workaround for the city's terrible signage."
- "I always look at community reviews to see what other people flagged because I know the official listings are unreliable"
- "I choose a different hotel using the app so I am able to switch to an alternative that doesn’t exclude me."