Guide · reading the Maps flag
What the wheelchair flag on Google Maps really means
That little wheelchair icon feels like an answer. Here is what it is actually based on, who writes it, and how far to trust it when you are choosing where to eat.
Where the flag lives
On a place's listing in Google Maps, the accessibility details sit in the About tab, in their own Accessibility group. If you turn on "Emphasize accessibility info" in the app's settings, Maps also shows a wheelchair icon on places that have these details, before you even open them.
Each detail is a simple yes or no: wheelchair-accessible entrance, restroom, seating, parking, elevator. There is no scale behind it and no detail under the box — no width in centimeters, no photo, no date it was checked.
What a "yes" actually says
A yes on "wheelchair-accessible entrance" means somebody checked that box. That is the whole claim. It usually means the entrance is step-free or close to it, but the box itself carries nothing you can lean on: no measurement, no date, no way to tell a doorway checked yesterday from one reported years ago.
The restroom attribute is the thinnest of all. It does not say whether the door closes behind the chair, whether there is a grab bar, or whether there is room to turn. A restroom the chair cannot really use is the most common way an evening fails after a promising flag.
Who puts it there
Business owners fill in their own accessibility attributes in their Google Business Profile, and the public can suggest changes to them too — anyone can edit these boxes, and Google's own pages describe the information as contributed, with no on-site inspection behind it.
Most of the time that is honest reporting by a business that knows its own door, and the crowd corrections help. But self-reported is not the same as checked, and the flag does not tell you which one you are looking at.
How to use it anyway
Used right, the flag is a triage tool. A clear "no" on the entrance attribute is probably a real no, and saves you a call. A "yes" means the call is worth making — then ask the three questions that decide the evening: is the entrance step-free, how wide in centimeters is the narrowest door on the way in, and can a wheelchair get from that door to a table and to the restroom.
That is the method in our first guide — the same three questions, in the order that decides the evening.
Why this page exists
We built StreetClub because a box somebody checked is not the same as a door somebody stood at. Our Calle Ocho list shows the few facts that decide the evening, each with its source and the date it was checked — and where we have not been yet, it says "Not yet checked" instead of a yes.
StreetClub is run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how a one-street guide like this keeps every fact dated and sourced.