A worldwide event to raise awareness for disability rights and accessibility kicks off on December 3. The “Map My Day” campaign is designed to improve the availability of information on the wheelchair accessibility of public places. Such information is often scarce or hard to find, making it very difficult for people with mobility impairments to participate in communities. “Map My Day” is being launched by the German NGO Sozialhelden (‘Social Heroes’), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNESCO on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The Day marks the start of a worldwide event to raise awareness for accessibility. For millions of people with wheelchairs, walking aids, or baby carriages the most common obstacles which limit their freedom of movement are stairs.
People around the world can post the accessibility of public places such as restaurants, train stations, tourist attractions and government buildings on Wheelmap.org, a free online map which is also the world’s largest database for wheelchair accessible places. It is hoped that many people in many places around the world will contribute information to Wheelmap, and that a new conversations about accessibility is started, thus ensuring the success of the campaign.
The campaign not only addresses people with a disability. It is really easy for everybody to contribute to the map by adding new local information with a few clicks. In this way users have already rated nearly 600,000 public places, making the map the world’s largest database for wheelchair accessibility. Wheelmap is available as an app for iPhone, Android Smartphone and Windows Phone (Windows 10), as well as on the website www.wheelmap.org/en/map – in more than 20 languages.
Participants can be part of “MapMyDay” individually or in groups, with colleagues, teammates or friends and family. NGOs, government authorities, businesses, schools, associations and celebrities are invited to help spread the word to their networks and ideally, to organize local mapping events themselves. There is a checklist on the website to help individuals, businesses, and organizations set up events.
More information: http://mapmyday.org/en/ Follow on Twitter: @SOZIALHELDEN @WHO @UNESCO @wheelmap #Machmitbei #MapMyDay Fabebook: www.facebook.com/mapmyday
