- The City of Greenville and the Barbara Stone Foundation have launched a mobile application that provides accessibility information to help people with disabilities navigate downtown Greenville.
- Greenville’s parking lot received more than $75,000 in improvements to address parking lot slope issues and on-street parking. 450 ADA barriers and trip hazards and 47 ADA ramps.
Michelle Weiss finally feels comfortable enough to venture downtown again thanks to a new web-based app designed to help people with disabilities navigate Greenville .
In October, Greenville launched a new accessibility mobile application, the ACCESS GVL APP, in partnership with the Barbara Stone Foundation, an organization serving people with disabilities.
It’s been eight years since Weiss was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome. This is a type of chronic pain that usually affects the arms and legs. Neuropathy has affected her hearing and ability to walk without assistance. Her symptoms have made it difficult for her to eat or shop downtown.
“My husband can drop me off and park, but I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Weiss said of trying to enjoy downtown Greenville with a disability. “Also, my son has autism and other sensory issues, so I would like to know in advance if the place will be too large or inaccessible.”
ACCESS GVL provides Weiss and other people with disabilities with up-to-date information about handicapped parking, convenient sidewalks, restaurant amenities, and other accessibility-related data. According to census information, there are more than 46,000 people with disabilities in Greenville County.
This app aims to make it easier for people with disabilities or mobility issues to navigate downtown.
View a map of Main Street ACCESS GVL provides an accessibility rating system for each downtown restaurant, as well as information about lighting, hearing, and restroom facilities. So far, nearly half of Greenville’s more than 80 restaurants have participated in the application.
āThis is another value-add, especially for our customers in downtown Greenville,ā said Michael Burns, general manager of Grill Marks (209 S. Main St.). For those who need it, it’s much easier to choose somewhere than walk around. ā
The mobile site also shows spaces in handicap parking garages and paths that avoid hills and slopes, making it easier to navigate downtown.
“The beauty of this app is that it has all these secret passageways and shortcuts to avoid hills,” said Mike Jenks, risk manager and ADA coordinator for the City of Greenville. People with disabilities and the elderly. ā
Greenville man used his disability to help people with disabilities
After Chris Sparrow was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he knew he could use his disability to help others. The symptoms, which he described as strange and traumatic, worsened when he returned to work.
Sparrow, a programming manager at the Barbara Stone Foundation, spent two years living in what he calls “purgatory” as he battled multiple sclerosis. But ultimately, he wanted to move forward with his life, including returning to work along Main Street.
“As I started moving back downtown in my wheelchair, it started to become clear to me that there were a lot of things I hadn’t thought about before,” Sparrow said.
For the past four years, Sparrow and Jenks have been working together since fall 2019 to ask neighborhood restaurants three specific questions. Are you able to enter through the front door, are you able to enjoy your products and services, and are the restrooms fully ADA compatible? Is it accessible?
To combat this, Jenks and Sparrow surveyed people with disabilities, asking them what information they needed when deciding to go downtown. They created her 100-page ADA Checklist to help restaurants assess how accessible their retail space really is.
Jenks and Sparrow brought together a total of five subgroups of individuals with disabilities to ensure that all groups were represented when considering disability. These groups include people with physical disabilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, autism, and other intellectual disabilities.
“Access is more than just physical access,” Sparrow said. “I don’t think everyone has a disability. It might be very noisy in a restaurant on a Friday, but not so much on a Wednesday. Our app is more than just wheelchair accessible. They want to be touched. It goes beyond that.ā
Slope improvements and ADA compliant upgrades are planned
According to Jenks, ACCESS GVL is one of the very first of its kind, and the effort took nearly four years of market research and development.
However, its creation is modeled after the University of Illinois’ similar 2020 database site filled with ADA information. However, this application has since been deprecated.
But beyond the launch of ACCESS GVL, the city has implemented other structural reforms to encourage people with disabilities to come downtown, including:
- Downtown Parking received more than $75,000 in funding to improve the slope of parking spaces and create three new accessible on-street parking spaces.
- Jenks said the city of Greenville added approximately 450 ADA barriers and trip hazards along Main Street, including sidewalk repairs, installed new concrete and also installed 47 ADA ramps.
- The city worked with the Greenville Zoo to add walking scooters and wheelchairs for people with disabilities.
Making cities more accessible to people with disabilities
When Weiss visited the Judson Bookstore last year, she had no idea how to get her walker upstairs. She didn’t know there was wheelchair access at the back of the building.
Weiss is also part of a research group at the Greenville Zoo that tested whether giraffe exhibits could be accessed on new scooters made available through a partnership with the city. People in wheelchairs also participated to make sure the lighting was adequate.
“I use a walker, so it’s difficult for me to move long distances. I use it not just for walking, but for balance and everything else,” Weiss said. said. “Above all, the sensory alert is one of the most satisfying he’s had with this app so far.”
Jenks said the hope is to eventually expand ACCESS GLV’s digital footprint beyond retail stores, concert halls, Fluor Field baseball stadium and even downtown Greenville.
āThe application will be updated as new restaurants come in,ā Jenks said. “The advantage of this app is that it has its own unique features. It’s actually a great way for companies to provide additional educational aspects of it, allowing them to improve their own usage. It is important.”
Travis Arrowood, manager of Bird’s Famous Cookies at 17 Main St. in Greenville, agrees that making stores and restaurants ADA accessible is good for business.
āWe had some people come in and measure the ramps and accessibility because we want everyone to come to our store and we want everyone to be able to access us. ā Arrowood said.
For more application information, please visit the City of Greenville’s Access website, Barbara Stone Foundation, 684-214-5798, or stop by City Hall, 206 S. Main St.
ā AJ Jackson covers the food and dining scene, arts, entertainment and more for Greenville News. Reach us by email at ajackson@gannett.com and follow us on Twitter at @ajhappened.