People living with disabilities find themselves planning ahead much of the time when going out into the community.  The following questions seem to be commonplace among those with mobility impairments. Are there any stairs? Is the building accessible? Can I find an accessible place to park?

The Coal Harbor Group developed a smartphone application called Parking Mobility which attempts to address the question concerning handicapped parking.  

Parking Mobility uses your smartphone's GPS to find spots near your desired location.  Other users are able to add info to the search results such as how many spots are in one parking lot.  You can use the street map setting to find this location as well as the satellite map to actually see what the parking area looks like.  

However, my experience with the app revealed that the satellite setting sometimes used older photos that did not indicate updates to the area. Also, it can make it difficult to see handicap signage or hashmarks due to vehicles parked on top of the H-cap logos. After trying this application out in my apartment parking lot I noticed that the satellite image could not detect the H-cap logo indicating there was a space for disabled parking due to tree coverage. Yet, a user could type information that indicates the number of spaces designated for the parking lot which in turn could be useful information.

Still, this is a great start at using mobile devices to help yourself and others find H-cap parking.  Please note that in order to download this application, you must have a 2nd generation iPod or an iPhone OS 3.0 or later. The company's website also indicates that the app is or will be available for Blackberry devices and for the new Android phone, though when it will be available is unclear.

Parking Mobility is a free download.