This award-winning map is helping people with disabilities see what’s actually accessible

The problem, Jason DaSilva says, is that a lot of places — even ones that say that they are — still aren’t accessible for people with disabilities. And so he’s working to change that.
The motorscooter-bound DaSilva is the founder of the site AXS Map, which just won the Made in NY Media Center’s Demo Day competition.
“I can call ahead but many places say they’re accessible when really, they’re not,” DaSilva says in a video. “So I had an idea. What if everyone could share all the accessible places they know? And what if all this was put on one map? And that map was available on the web and on mobile phones?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Chta29jjXQ
The map allows people to rate and review the accessibility of restaurants, cafes and more and arranges that data in a map, a bit like Foursquare. Now DaSilva is trying to add a virtual reality component, so users can see what a venue looks like before heading over. AXS Map teamed up with Evolving Technologies to make that happen.

This photo is from our Mapathon in Asuncion, Paraguay with our partner Saraki. We mapped 60+ places that day alone! pic.twitter.com/LlTgTKLo7w

— AXS Map (@axsmap) May 6, 2016

The Made In NY Media is a city-funded incubator and coworking space for media and tech companies and projects. It holds quarterly demo days for its graduating members, at which they’re able to share what they’ve been working on and crown a winner. This year the demo day was judged by Fran Hauser of Rothenberg Ventures, Matthew Hooper of Barclays and reporter Jason Abbruzzese of Mashable.