This App Is Like a Waze for Accessibility. Here’s How You Can Use It — and Pitch In

When’s the last time you checked to see how accessible the spaces you enter are? OK, now what about the cities you live in? I’ve started to notice how accessibility — whether for physical or invisible needs — isn’t often baked into city planning. This sent me on a search for ways to find spaces and points on the map that support people with disabilities.

That’s how I found AccessNow, a crowdsourced accessibility platform that covers 2 million locations in more than 35 countries and uses AI to help interpret and predict accessibility features.

What is AccessNow and how does it use AI?

AccessNow was launched in 2015 by Maayan Ziv in response to her own experiences with muscular dystrophy. She wanted to build an app so people could find and share information about accessible spaces. 

AccessNow uses the Google Maps Platform API. When you search for a location or to see if somewhere is accessible, the platform uses a mix of artificial intelligence technology, business-provided information and customer reviews. It uses this to assess and predict the accessibility of locations, and then it refines its output over time.

How to use AccessNow to navigate accessibility challenges

Using AccessNow is simple and efficient, and it’s available on iOS and Android.

1. Navigate to your app store and download AccessNow. Look for a blue icon with a white arrow. 
2. Create a profile account, or log in with your Facebook or Apple account. This will allow you to contribute reviews and access personalized recommendations. 
3. You can customize your profile to reflect the specific accessibility needs you have or that the person you’re supporting has. Examples include wheelchair access and braille signage. Your map’s interface will help sort and filter results based on nearby places and selected accessibility preferences. 

The best way to stay updated with AccessNow, and further integrate with the software, is its reviews system. AccessNow relies on user-generated content, so you can read reviews from other users to keep accessibility likelihood high. Contributing your own review helps others with questions or support and can improve the platform’s data. 

Should you use AccessNow?

AccessNow is training its AI model based on the lived experiences of people with disabilities. I see it as a reviews and data collection site that you can weigh in on, almost like Waze’s functionality, but for a specific community. 

Though you don’t need to input your location to find accessibility watch-outs, you will need to in order to find specific accessibility support on the interactive map. 

Upgrading to an Essential or Pro tier will give you access to other features, like a Slack channel and a robust content library that looks to be launching soon. So if you’re looking for support beyond map watch-outs, this can be a useful resource to invest in for $12-$17 per month, though I’d wait until all features are available and working before signing up for a paid account.

With its global reach of more than 200,000 places across 35 countries, you can find accessible locations worldwide. However, due to its user contribution model, areas with fewer people may have limited data, and reviews may reflect personal perspectives that don’t apply universally — so remember that community information isn’t fact (or fiction) but rather information that may or may not work for you. We reached out to AccessNow’s team for comment but didn’t hear back before publishing. 

AccessNow is a generally reliable resource using AI and machine learning to support community members who can be overlooked in city planning. And with a free tier that gives you information and other community-contributed data, it’s financially accessible.