Yelp adds AI-powered alt text and new ways to search for accessible businesses

Yelp is launching a new array of searchable accessibility tags this week, part of the platform’s recognition of July’s Disability Pride Month.

Users can now sort their results by business features that accommodate visitors with various disabilities. Those features include:

• Accessible parking near the establishment’s entrance 

• ADA-compliant main entrances

• ADA-compliant restrooms

• No steps or stairs at entrances or inside the business

• ASL proficient staff

• Closed captioning on TVs

• Braille menus

• QR code menus (used by those who need access to assistive technologies on their own devices)

The updated tags (known as “attributes”) are intended to address broader, intersecting accessibility needs for those navigating public spaces and businesses, following the popularity of Yelp’s “wheelchair accessible” tag. The new attributes were created in collaboration with disability inclusion groups Disability:IN, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), Open to All, and The Arc.

Yelp will also provide accessibility inclusion guidance under a new Accessibility Resources Hub for business owners themselves, designed with information from its nonprofit partners.

“Far too often, people with disabilities do not have access to information to find businesses and services that are accessible to them,” said Calla Devlin, managing director of Open to All, a coalition of nonprofits promoting nondiscrimination. “Yelp’s new suite of attributes is an invaluable tool for customers, and Open to All offers resources and guidance for businesses to create welcoming and safe environments for all customers.”

Yelp’s visual features will be getting a revamp, too, with new AI-powered alternative text descriptions for photos uploaded to the site. The feature harnesses unnamed Large Language Models (LLMs) to automatically generate descriptive alternative text for images for screen readers, Yelp explains. Earlier this year, Yelp announced a new AI assistant, adding to a larger collection of generative AI features integrated on the platform.

“To help people discover and connect with great local businesses, it’s important that they can determine if those businesses will accommodate their needs, especially when it comes to accessibility,” said Yelp Senior Vice President of Product Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh. “With these new accessibility attributes, we’re excited to help businesses more clearly indicate their inclusive practices to make it even easier for people to find the right business for them.”