Designing Google Maps Accessibility Improvements for Users with Disabilities

You are a product manager on Google Maps. How would you improve Maps for people with disabilities? ```hint Choose one group and follow a trip Needs differ sharply between disabilities. Pick one group, walk through a trip from choosing a destination to getting inside, and note where the information Maps gives stops being reliable for them. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which disabilities are in scope: mobility, vision, hearing, cognitive, or is the choice mine? - Should the improvements live inside the existing Maps app rather than in a separate product? - Which part of Maps matters most here: finding and choosing places, walking and driving directions, or public transit? - Is there a launch timeline or resource limit to plan around? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A deliberate choice of disability group, justified against the alternatives - Pain points across planning, routing and arrival that are specific to that group - Solutions that address data coverage and accuracy, not only interface changes - Prioritization by impact and feasibility, with success metrics and guardrails - Risks such as wrong accessibility data, privacy of disability information and uneven coverage ### Follow-up Questions - A place listed as step-free turns out to have stairs at the entrance. How do you keep this data accurate at global scale? - How would you extend the plan to blind and low-vision users, whose needs differ? - How would you measure success when many users with disabilities never tell Maps about their needs?