Using GIS For Making Handicap Accessible Areas 

San Francisco is using GIS mapping for installing handicap ramps on street corners. One third of the street corners in San Francisco do not have handicap ramps and several of the ramps that they do have are outdated. The city is working on installing new ramps and updating the old ones by using the Curb Ramp Information System (CRIS) which is a map of curb ramps that was made on ArcGIS. The map shows where there are curb ramps and each ramp is color coded based on the condition it is in. The map is posted on the cities website for the community to use. It also is being used to help monitor the project and to determine which streets they want to do construction on. 

http://www.pwmag.com/ada-compliance/using-gis-to-meet-accessibility-requirements.asp

I've been using ArcGIS in class a lot to look at natural hazards and different enviromental trends but I didn't think about the advantages it could have for something like this. It just shows how useful technology like ArcGIS can be.