Three Places to Review a Business’s Accessibility – Posted March 13
Three Places to Review a Business’s Accessibility
For people with disabilities, finding accessible restaurants and stores can be frustrating. Very often, there is no way to know if a business is accessible until you go check it out yourself. However, there are several websites that are trying to change this by giving people with disabilities places to rate and review the accessibility of local restaurants, hotels, and other businesses, and find accessible spots reviewed by others.
AXSMap.com
Once you sign up for an account, you can search for a location and review the accessibility of the entryway and bathroom on a five-point scale. You can also mark if the location is quiet, spacious, and well-lit, and if there is accessible parking. There is even a space for extra comments and photos. The search results are pulled from Google Maps, so if a business or service does not appear in Google Maps, it won’t appear on AXSMAP.
ABLERoad.com
ABLERoad is similar to AXSMap, except it’s search results come from Yelp. To leave a review, you can log in with Facebook or make an AbleRoad account. Users can review locations for accessibility issues related to mobility, hearing, sight, and cognitive disabilities. Each type of accessibility is broken down into twelve specific accessibility issues, for a total of forty-eight specific areas of accessibility, which users can rate from one to five stars.
Under each category, you can rate staff/customer service, so people with disabilities can get an idea of how knowledgeable and accommodating the staff is to people with disabilities.
JJsList.com
JJsList has a slightly different focus than AXSMap and ABLERoad. Rather than focusing on physical accessibility, it focuses on how disability aware the business staff is, and how well they serve customers with disabilities.
Again, you have to have an account to write a review. Each review requires you to enter the business name, address, and city. You can rate your experience with the business on a scale of “terrible” to “great”. You are asked “Do you think this business provides welcoming, flexible & respectful customer service or work to people with disabilities?”, and can answer yes or no, and mark if they are physically accessible, welcoming, talked directly to the person with the disability, has employees with disabilities, has accessible parking, and so on. Finally, there is a space to write comments.
Conclusions
Overall, we would recommend AXSMap over ABLERoad and JJsList. AXSMap has the clearest review process and guidelines, and even provides videos on how to write accessibility reviews for their site. Their system does not go into as much detail as ABLERoad’s, but it strikes a good balance between detailed and user friendly.
Whichever website you choose, the important thing is that more disability advocates come share their knowledge about accessible local spots.