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Meet the Google engineer making Maps more accessible

Sasha Blair-Goldensohn in a New York subway station. (Robin Young/Here & Now)
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Sasha Blair-Goldensohn in a New York subway station. (Robin Young/Here & Now)

In 2009, then 33-year-old Sasha Blair-Goldensohn was walking through New York鈥檚 Central Park on his regular commute to the Google offices in Chelsea when a 100-pound rotten tree branch struck him.

With a fractured skull and damaged spinal cord, the father of two and a rising star engineer at Google Maps would have died if not for the help of a doctor jogging by, who kept him alive until an ambulance arrived. He spent a month in a coma and over a year in rehab before returning to work, partially paralyzed and now using a wheelchair.

That鈥檚 when Blair-Goldensohn realized: 鈥淭his thing that I鈥檇 been working on forever, Google Maps, what so many people use to get around, it didn鈥檛 work for me. If I wanted to go to meet up at a cafe, I could find out the hours, beautiful pictures of the food, I couldn鈥檛 find out if I could get in the door. I thought, 鈥榃ait, we鈥檙e the place everybody uses. Couldn鈥檛 we do more?鈥 We could, and we did.鈥

Sasha Blair-Goldensohn shows somewhere wheelchair-accessible on Maps. (Robin Young/Here & Now)
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Sasha Blair-Goldensohn shows somewhere wheelchair-accessible on Maps. (Robin Young/Here & Now)

First, he became an advocate for better transit after realizing part of his commute to work, a subway ride, was unavailable to him because there was no elevator. He worked with the nonprofit Disability Rights Advocates to bring a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and in 2023, judges approved a requiring the MTA to create stair-free travel in at least 95% of subway stations by 2055. A second suit, requiring the MTA to maintain the elevators, is still pending.

Blair-Goldensohn also led disability awareness at Google, both in showing wheelchair-accessible routes on public transit and 鈥渨alking鈥 routes, and through a tiny wheelchair icon awarded to places that are accessible. Blair-Goldensohn now has the title of Google Maps disability inclusion leader. And many of the 120 million so-called 鈥渓ocal guides鈥 for Google Maps around the world who crowdsource information from over 50 million locations now contribute information about accessibility.

Robin Young visited Blair-Goldensohn in the Upper West Side Manhattan apartment his progressive journalist parents rented in 1973, where Blair-Goldensohn has lived his entire life, to learn how the Google Maps app works, and to go for a 鈥榳alk and roll,鈥 to see the city from his wheelchair user point of view.

4 questions with Sasha Blair-Goldensohn

You say, like most of us, you didn鈥檛 think about wheelchairs all that much and didn鈥檛 think there were many users.

鈥淵es 鈥 Sid Wolinsky, one of my mentors and cofounder of Disability Rights Advocates, he said, 鈥楽asha, if you go to a city and you don鈥檛 see people in wheelchairs, it doesn鈥檛 mean they鈥檙e not there, it means they鈥檙e stuck at home or in hospitals and they can鈥檛 get out.鈥 My accident was in 2009, but this community around me, around us, was always there. And it has buoyed me.鈥

You took us past a wonderful Irish pub in New York, the kind that dot every block. Talk about hindrances we might not think of and how the Google Maps app helps.

鈥淪tairs. So, for instance, many small New York pubs are below the sidewalk level, they are a few steps down, and they are fun, but I won鈥檛 be booking my next birthday party there. On the Google Maps app, when you open to a place like one of my favorites, Kossar鈥檚 Bagels and Bialys on West 72nd Street, you can see a little tiny wheelchair icon where the hours and average prices are found. That tells me I can get in the door鈥攏o stairs, it鈥檚 accessible. But then you can find out, is there parking if someone travels in a wheelchair van? But also, how鈥檚 the bathroom? I see on the Kossar鈥檚 site there is still a question mark about whether it has an accessible bathroom. I know it does, so I鈥檓 going to check that as a yes. Now it says 鈥榮ubmit,鈥 so I will hit submit. Then my contribution will be vetted using AI technology, and it will appear on the app.鈥

There were at least a few elevators in the New York subway system when you had your accident. What led you to become such an active part of demanding more?

鈥淟ike many, I thought I just wouldn鈥檛 be able to ride public transit. There are buses, but there are few wheelchair spots on them. Then I visited Boston and saw there were elevators in almost every T stop, their city train system. And I said 鈥榃ow, you can do this?鈥 Back in New York, I joined in protests at different subway stops with the Elevator Action Group and became a plaintiff in the Disability Rights Advocates lawsuit. We won in our demand for subway elevators in at least 95% of stations. The part of the lawsuit that鈥檚 still pending requires the maintenance of those elevators鈥攁nd that鈥檚 so important. Our research shows elevators are broken 30 times a day. Wheelchair riders may arrive at a station and not be able to get on the train, or worse, they鈥檙e in an elevator that breaks, or they are on the train and arrive at a station with a broken elevator. They either have to get back on the train and try another station, or 鈥攁s I鈥檝e been able to do 鈥 rely on good Samaritans to carry me in the wheelchair up flights of stairs.

These elevators are expensive. What do you say to people who say it鈥檚 a small community, those in wheelchairs. Make the case that the cost is worth it.

鈥淲e believe the price will come down. But also, I remember my mom telling me about struggling years ago to get a stroller up and down curbs and stairs. That鈥檚 the curb cut effect. Curb cuts were mandated for people with wheelchairs, but they benefit people with strollers, delivery carts, luggage. And we were in the elevator with you at the 72nd Street station, and also a family with kids and a stroller, someone with luggage 鈥 there could also be someone with a bike or a hand cart. It benefits everyone. And for me, in a wheelchair, it鈥檚 a chance to talk to people I鈥檇 never get to see. And I would say to people who ask about the cost鈥 someday you will need one. You or someone you love. You will need it.

鈥淒espite having grown up in a household of activists, I didn鈥檛 feel the urgency myself. But it finds you. And it found me. It lets me be out here with more confidence.鈥

____

produced this interview for broadcast. edited it.  adapted it for the web.

This article was originally published on

Copyright 2025 WBUR

Karyn Miller-Medzon
Robin Young is the award-winning host of Here & Now. Under her leadership, Here & Now has established itself as public radio's indispensable midday news magazine: hard-hitting, up-to-the-moment and always culturally relevant.