Bend family asks you to crowdsource accessibility

Bella Beare has muscular dystrophy and will likely never walk.

But recently, she’s learned to roll, and her mother, Jessica Beare, says it’s given Bella a new lease on life.

“As soon as you put her in that and she has the freedom of getting around, she just — she lights up,” the mother said Tuesday.

“As frustrating as it is when kids don’t listen to you, it’s kind of nice to see the independence and the freedom that she has now,” Beare added.

But with that freedom comes a new set of challenges. It’s tough to go out and about in a world that’s not designed with people like Bella in mind.

“It’s going out to eat and going to the movies and going out for a drink and stuff like that. So we want people to, wherever you are, anytime, just stop and think what it might be like to be in wheels,” Beare said.

That’s why Bella’s parents, Jessica and Mark, decided to start telling the community about an app called Access Now.

It’s a crowdsourcing platform for users to upload information about a location’s accessibility.

“We’re hoping that with a little bit of help from people using this app that we can get out into the world and not have her disappointed when we get somewhere that’s a little bit more difficult to get into,” said Beare.

Jessica, Mark and Bella are hopeful that if infrastructure doesn’t change, at least they can be prepared for it.

You can download the app in your app store and for more information you can head to this website:
http://accessnow.me/

This is also the topic of our new KTVZ.COM Poll: Do you think all businesses should be required to provide access for the disabled? Weigh in on our poll, halfway down the right side of our home page.