Greenville's mobile app helps people with disabilities have better access in downtown

Michelle Weiss finally feels comfortable enough to venture downtown again, thanks to a new web-based app designed to assist people with disabilities in getting around Greenville.

In October, Greenville launched the ACCESS GVL APP – a new accessibility mobile application in collaboration with the Barbara Stone Foundation, an organization providing services for people with disabilities.

It has been eight years since Weiss was diagnosed with Complex regional pain syndrome, a form of chronic pain that usually affects arms or legs. The neurological disability affects her auditory senses and her ability to walk without assistance. Her condition has made downtown dining and shopping burdensome.

"My husband can drop me off and park, but I never know what to expect," Weiss said of trying to enjoy downtown Greenville with a disability. "Also, my son has autism and other sensory issues, so I like to know ahead of time if places are either too big or are non-accessible."

ACCESS GVL provides Weiss and other people with disabilities up-to-date information on handicapped parking, convenient walkways, restaurant amenities and other accessibility-related data. There are 46,000-plus people with disabilities in Greenville County, according to census information.

The app is intended to aid in making downtown easier to navigate for those with impairments and mobility issues.

Showcasing a map of Main Street, ACCESS GVL provides a rating system for accessibility for each onboarded downtown restaurant while also providing information on lighting, auditory and restroom amenities. So far, nearly half of Greenville's 80-plus restaurants have joined the application.

"It's another added value for our customers, especially in downtown Greenville," said Michael Byrnes, general manager of Grill Marks, 209 S. Main St. "If you want to choose somewhere to come out, usually you want to figure that out ahead of time. For someone that may need that, it's a lot easier for them to choose somewhere instead of having to wander."

The mobile site also displays disability parking garage spaces and pathways that avoid hills and slopes, making it easier to get around downtown.

"The benefit of the app is all of the secret passageways and shortcuts that avoid slopes, said Mike Jenks, risk manager and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) coordinator with the city of Greenville. "It's great for someone with disabilities, a walker, someone short on their feet or elderly."

Greenville man used his disability to help others with disabilities

After Chris Sparrow was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he knew he would use his disability to help others. What he described as odd and traumatic became worse when he returned to work.

Sparrow, programming manager at Barbara Stone Foundation, lived two years in what he called "purgatory," dealing with multiple sclerosis. But he eventually wanted to move on with life, which included returning to work along Main Street.

"When I started to come back downtown in a wheelchair, it started to become very apparent that there's a lot of things I never considered before," Sparrow said.

For the past four years, Sparrow and Jenks have worked together in what began in the fall of 2019 by asking three specific questions to neighboring restaurants: Can an individual get in the front entrance, enjoy the goods and services, and are the restrooms fully ADA accessible?

To combat this, Jenks and Sparrow took a survey of individuals with disabilities and asked what information they needed in making the decision to go downtown. They developed a 100-page ADA checklist to help restaurants gauge how accessible their retail spaces actually were.

In total, Jenks and Sparrow gathered five subgroups of individuals with disabilities to be sure that all groups were represented when considering disabilities. Those groups include individuals with physical, visual, hearing, autistic and other intellectual disabilities.

"Access is more than just physical access," Sparrow said. "I am not everyone with a disability, and it could be really loud at a restaurant on a Friday, but not as much on a Wednesday. Our app hopes to touch on more than just wheelchair access. It goes beyond that."

Slope improvements and ADA compliance upgrades planned

According to Jenks, ACCESS GVL is one of the very first of its kind, as nearly four years of market research and development went into the effort.

Its inception, however, is modeled after a similar 2020 database site at the University of Illinois, which was filled with ADA information. But the application has since gone defunct.

Yet, beyond the launch of ACCESS GVL, the city has implemented other structural changes to encourage individuals with disabilities to come downtown, including

• Downtown parking garages have received more than $75,000 to address parking space slopes and add three new accessible street-level parking spaces.

• Greenville has added nearly 450 ADA barriers and trip hazards along Main Street, including sidewalk repairs, installed new concrete, and also installed 47 ADA ramps, according to Jenks.

• The city worked with the Greenville Zoo to add walking scooters/wheelchairs for those with disabilities.

Making the city more accessible for people with disabilities

While visiting Judson Bookstore last year, Weiss had no idea how she would use her walker to go upstairs. She didn't know wheelchair access was in the back of the building.

Weiss was also part of a study group at the Greenville Zoo, which tested to see if a giraffe exhibit was accessible with the new scooters made available through a partnership with the city. People with wheelchairs also participated to make sure there was proper lighting.

"I use a walker, so it's harder to go longer distances. I not only use it to walk but to balance and everything else," Weiss said. "Out of everything, the sensory warnings are one of the things I've been most happy with the app so far."

According to Jenks, the expectation is to eventually expand ACCESS GLV digital footprint into retail stores, concert halls, Fluor Field baseball stadium and beyond downtown Greenville.

"As new restaurants come on board, the application will be updated," Jenks said. "The benefit of the app is that it has a life of its own. It's really all about adding and bringing that education aspect to businesses so they can improve their own patronage."

Travis Arrowood, store manager of Byrds Famous Cookies, 17 S. Main St., Greenville, agrees making stores and restaurants ADA accesible helps business.

"We had some guys come in and do some measurements for ramps and accessibility because we want everyone to come to our store, we want everyone to have access to us," Arrowood said.

For more on the application information, please visit the city of Greenville access website, Barbara Stone Foundation at 684-214-5798, or stop by city hall at 206 S. Main St.

– A.J. Jackson covers the food & dining scene, along with arts, entertainment and more for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @ajhappened.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Access Greenville Downtown provides app to help people get around town