[Accessibility] Introduction and sneak peek

[Nolan Darilek]

Sure, drop me a note. Would love to work with others on this or similar 
projects.


On 03/26/2010 10:48 AM, Alex Jurgensen` wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am working on a very, very similar project.
>
> Can we talk off-list about this project? I have some ideas for GPS,
> but I would be interested to hear your input.
>
> Regards,
> Alex,
>
>
>
> On 3/25/10, Nolan Darilek<nolan at thewordnerd.info>  wrote:
>    
>> Hello. I wanted to drop a quick note to introduce myself, and to mention
>> a project I'd appreciate feedback on before I blog/tweet about it.
>>
>> I'm blind, and have used accessible GPS for the past four years or so.
>> While I like the concept, everything out there is too expensive, fairly
>> niche or just isn't that good. I thought that I could do better and,
>> while it's been a long road with many rewrites, I think that I finally
>> have a good start.
>>
>> I've called the project Hermes because he's the deity of lots of cool
>> travel-related concepts, and I wanted a name that would capture the
>> notion that accessible GPS is as much about fun and adventure as it is
>> about mundane things. The architecture makes lots of the map import and
>> description code available as a GUI-agnostic core, atop which any number
>> of apps can be developed.
>>
>> To that end I've been focusing on Hermes Mobile, the web-based
>> front-end. It uses the geolocation support available in most modern
>> browsers and a bunch of accessible AJAX to present what I think is a
>> nice map-browsing experience. My intent is to design something that can
>> run on phones and other internet-connected devices. I haven't actually
>> tested it in the field yet, but I've performed searches and browsed lots
>> of locations from my desktop, so in theory it should work live, though I
>> haven't optimized it for this use case yet.
>>
>> I've put up a demo instance for folks to play with. You can find it at
>> http://thewordnerd.homeip.net, with a few caveats:
>>
>> * I live in Texas, and only have the TX map loaded. You can still
>> experiment with it from outside of TX, just enter a TX address or city
>> into the search field (I.e. "Austin, TX".) Austin seems to have more
>> thorough POI coverage than other TX cities I've tried.
>> * It's running on my desktop, so if it gets too much use then I may have
>> to pull it.
>> * It may occasionally be down. I bounce it daily to relaunch the newest
>> version with whatever changes I've implemented that day. If this happens
>> then your session will be cleared and you'll have to start browsing
>> again once it's back up.
>>
>> Just visit the above website and optionally authorize your browser to
>> share your location if given the choice. Type addresses, cities or lat,
>> lon pairs into the search box to select a starting location. To initiate
>> the search, tab away from the box and the area which formerly displayed
>> nearby nodes switches to search results. If you decide not to visit any
>> of these, simply clear the search field, tab away again and the nearby
>> nodes reappear. When you're on the map, the area on the left displays
>> nearby nodes with distance and bearing where possible, and if you're on
>> a street, buttons near the bottom move you to adjacent intersections.
>> You can either browse linearly along the road network, or non-linearly
>> by selecting points. To select a node from the list on the left, either
>> arrow to it or select it with the mouse then tab or mouse away. If you
>> do a search and aren't located on a road initially, you'll have to
>> select a node on the left to move anywhere.
>>
>> Distances are metric by default, but if you prefer imperial units then
>> click the "KPH" popup where speed is displayed and change it to MPH.
>> This globally changes the measurement system for the duration of your
>> session.
>>
>> I have lots of plans for this. More immediately I want to add augmented
>> reality features so you can do things like attach notes to locations and
>> have those displayed when you get within a configurable range--great for
>> remembering which door is the one to your favorite restaurant or store,
>> or for documenting button layouts on laundry or vending machines. I'm
>> also pondering social network integration. Maybe you need to find a bus
>> stop but can't find a pedestrian to ask. In these instances, simply snap
>> a picture of where you are and post a link to that plus Google and OSM
>> views of the area to Twitter and Facebook. Your friends and followers
>> simply visit a page in the app, answer your posted question and their
>> responses appear in your mobile browser.
>>
>> Both the core and the web app code are GPL, though I haven't yet set up
>> the hosting infrastructure to make the code available. If there's
>> developer interest, though, then I may be inspired to do so sooner
>> rather than later. :) Everything's written in Scala using LibOSM for the
>> mapping and Lift as the web framework.
>>
>> Anyhow, I'm very interested in feedback. I'm also curious as to how well
>> the site works on accessible iPhones/iPod Touches. I tested it briefly
>> on Safari under OS X 10.5 but it failed spectacularly, and I'm guessing
>> this means that the iPhone is out, and other research I've done suggests
>> that Mobile Safari doesn't support geolocation APIs, meaning selecting a
>> start location is purely search-driven right now. Hopefully Apple will
>> get with the program re: ARIA and other accessibility standards, because
>> it works quite well under Firefox and Orca. I don't know how it looks
>> visually, but I've tried to design a layout that makes sense and looks
>> tolerable. :)
>>
>> Have a great day.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Accessibility mailing list
>> Accessibility at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/accessibility
>>
>>      
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