[Accessibility] List Kick Off: Introduction Lulu-Ann

[Lulu-Ann at gmx.de]

Hi members of this new list,

let me start with a little introduction of myself.
I am 37 and my job is engineer for a mixture of
electrotechnics and computer science.
I live in Hannover, Germany, and I am OpenStreetMap
contributor for nearly two years now.

My cousin needs a wheelchair, so I became aware of 
the special need of disabled persons. When a
street planner reminded me that lowered curbs are
nice for wheelchair users, but not for blind persons,
I thought of adding such details to the map.

I started a category for wiki pages and tags that
are relevant for the persons with different disabilities.
Soon it came to the point to realize that visual maps
are not usable for blind persons, so I started two
projects that try to make the map accessible:

HaptoRender will soon be able to create tactile maps and 
Via-Dux is planned to be a graphicless pedestrian routing software
for mobile devices (Java), that can be used with common screen readers.

See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/HaptoRender
See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Via-Dux

The main page for accessibility in OSM wiki is here:

See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/accessibility
There are also projects about wheelchair routing.

You can meet me in Amsterdam at the "State of the Map"
conference.
You will find me in Skype with my email address.

The German mailing list runs fine and has already collected many
good requirements, which objects need to be put on the map and how
routing shall work.
I hope this list will add further value. 

Please introduce yourself to the list, too.
Let us know which requirements you have for OpenStreetMap or the 
running projects, or tell us about your current work.

You are welcome to invite any interested persons to this list, 
regardless if they already have any OpenStreetMap skills or not.
Of course many disabled persons can not take much benefit from
the project yet - Let's improve it!

Regards
Lulu-Ann
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-- 
GRATIS für alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT!
Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01

-- 
GRATIS für alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT!
Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome01