Making travel with disabilities easier

ASHA BLAIR-GOLDENSOHN is on a tech-driven mission to help people with disabilities travel easier.

- LIZA WEISSTUCH

Blair-Goldensohn, a software engineer at Google, was paralysed from the chest down in 2009, when a 100-pound tree limb fell on him in Central Park. Since then, his perspective as a wheelchair user has inspired him to build out Google Maps accessibility features and to push for all-around inclusivity."There's a huge swath of the population that isn't visible — not because we don't want to be out there in the community, but because out of sight, out of mind," said Blair-Goldensohn, who is now the disability inclusion feature lead at Google. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people — or 16% of the world's population — experience significant disability. That's more than 70 million adults in the United States.

Many of them rely on Google Maps features that show stair-free entrances and provide audio guidance to navigate streets and find places like restaurants, ATMs and accessible transit stations. Blair-Goldensohn has helped oversee the introduction of wheelchair-accessible transit routes and, more recently, stair-free surface routes.

Google Maps isn't the only mapping app for navigating accessibility when you get to an unfamiliar city. AVIV ScoutRoute customises routes for people with limited mobility or vision, relying on user feedback and AI to account for factors like sidewalk width, steepness, surface composition, curb ramps and landmarks. Here are tools that can ease the way for travellers with disabilities.

Roll Mobility