[Accessibility] Getting know

[Lulu-Ann at gmx.de]

Hello list members,
hello Jan!

Jan wrote
> sorry for asking questions which were probably discussed here already, but
> there's no suitable possibility to search the list archive.

Not? I thought so.

> I'm blind developper trying to find anything regarding maps which is 
> accessible and working. I'm rather skilled in C/C++ and PHP and have no 
> experience with programming the mobile platforms, but I'm ready to learn. 
> When you know one language, you know all of them. ;-)
> Since now I've been using the Loadstone, OSM exports and the Google Maps 
> route plan, but I believe there's much more what could a blind user get.

Great to hear you want to participate!

> Don't you know, when will the LALM project cover also the rest of Europe? 
> I'm interested mainly for the Czech Republic. Is there any possibility to 
> help with development from my side?

Yes, LALM will cover the whole world just like OpenStreetMap does. 
The limits are:

* OSM covers everything between 85° North and 85° South.
* OSM coverage. If nobody has mapped it, it's not there
* Server speed. We'll see. Pedestrian routes should be short.
* Server load. We'll try to raise money, if we overload it.
* The languages your screenreader can read. If it does not speak chinese, you will have troubles to get around chinese street names for sure.
* User interface translation. We will start with Germand and add English.

> I found the project OSM Direction tool for Visually Impaired
> (OpenVoiceNav) 
> made by Rajan Vaish. It seems it's been created as a Google Summer project
> and is no longer supported. Have anyone seen it working? Is it worth to 
> rewrite it to work again and support nowadays technologies?

I wrote some mails back and forth with him and never saw a result.
Probably just a dead project like many others.

> Is there any editor which would make me able to edit the OSM data - adding
> new POIs, adding the blind concerned tags to crossings and so on?

On the OSM wiki page "OSM for the blind" is a list of instructions, how to add things with help of sighted persons anywhere in the world.
When LALM works for exploring and routing, we want to add an editor. 

> Is there another senseful way I could help us all?

Sure. Do the translation of the user interface from English to all languages you know.

We will keep this list informed when the translation can be started.

Cheers
Lulu-Ann

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