Google has added support for “more detailed walking instructions” to Maps.
In attempting to do my duty disseminating as much Global Accessibility Awareness Day news as I could as a one-man newsroom last week, I reported on Google having a whale of a week announcing numerous accessibility-minded updates at its annual shindig known as the Google I/O developer conference. Amongst the items the Mountain View-based company hyped were enhancements to the ever-popular Google Maps.
According to Google, users will be able to access what it described as “more detailed walking instructions” while navigating to places. With Google Lens and its screen-reading capability, people will be able to hear the name and categories of places around them—Google used ATMs and restaurants as examples—and know how far away they are from getting there. In addition, Google has included support for detailed voice guidance which it said will “[provide] audio prompts letting you know when you’re heading in the right direction, crossing a busy intersection, or being rerouted if you’ve gone the wrong way.” Elsewhere for Maps, Google said the app features accessibility information for “more than 50 million places” thanks in large part to the crowdsourced data from business owners and Maps users. The details are denoted with a ♿ icon and highlights areas such as parking, seating, and restrooms. There also exist filters to help search places that are wheelchair accessible as well. Finally, for those with hearing disabilities, Google Maps now supports Auracast; assuming community leaders and business owners mark their listing(s), Maps will surface venues compatible with Auracast. If so marked, Google noted places such as gyms, places of worship, and theaters can “broadcast enhanced or assistive audio to visitors with Auracast-enabled Bluetooth hearing aids, earbuds and headphones.”
In an effort to dive deeper on Google’s improvements to Maps, earlier this week I connected with Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, who works as Google’s accessibility and disability inclusion features lead for Maps, explained to me in a brief interview conducted via email the aforementioned accessibility features “draw inspiration from the joys and challenges of everyday life with a disability.” These lived experiences, she said, come from a multitude of people including Google employees and others living in or adjacent to the disability community.
According to Goldensohn, this collective feedback from the community has but one goal: to make Google Maps “just as helpful for disabled folks as anyone else” such that disabled people are able to “explore, navigate, enjoy, and contribute to the communities where we live and travel.”
“Features like Lens in Maps and detailed voice guidance provide Blind and low-vision users with information sighted people might take for granted, [such as] the distance to an upcoming turn or the words written on a sign,” Goldensohn said of prioritizing accessibility. “Making these features available worldwide, in all supported languages, is critical because people with disabilities live everywhere and we go everywhere.”
Goldensohn added it’s important to remember accessibility features, from Google or other companies, are extremely useful situationally. To wit, a person may have an injury and thus is temporarily disabled. She cited an example of knowing whether a restaurant, for instance, having steps or being accessible to wheelchair users may prove helpful to parents pushing strollers and/or travelers lugging rollable suitcases. Likewise, the advent of detailed walking directions helps people during times when it isn’t prudent to look down at one’s phone. It’s hard to look at your phone when your hands are full with groceries, Goldensohn said.
Goldensohn reemphasized the notion that Google’s accessibility features, in Maps and otherwise, are developed and heavy influenced by Googlers—the colloquial term for Google workers—with disabilities. This is important context, she said, because the company strives to “ensure we’re building features that are helpful for this community.” Goldensohn made note of how Maps’ new accessibility information feature was built in this fashion, saying local guides in the communities have contributed “more than [a] billion global accessibility updates” to the app since 2017.