People with physical disabilities have a new tool to avoid the frequent frustration of inaccessible buildings.
“Imagine going to a location, trying to show up to an event or a job interview, and there’s a step,” says Access Now founder Maayan Ziv, who uses a mobility device.
“That’s the situation I’ve been in countless times.”
AccessNow.me is a website where users can place a thumbs up or thumbs down on a map of businesses, and then others can check the map to see what is and isn’t accessible.
Russell Winkelaar said the crowd-sourced site is helping him choose restaurants, rather than “wandering around wasting time getting ‘hangry.’”
Ziv said she hopes the site will not only reward businesses that are already accessible, but encourage others to get rid of barriers like wheel-chair blocking steps.
Ziv has a Master of Digital Media degree from Toronto’s Ryerson University, and the school’s Digital Media Zone helped with development, so most of the more than 2,200 places currently pinned to the map are in Toronto.
However, Access Now has at least one rating in more than 100 cities and Ziv is looking for investors to help it grow in other countries.
A phone application is also in the works.
With a report from CTV National News Medical Correspondent Avis Favaro
