[Accessibility] Question about accessibility tagging, key:incline, and sidewalks

[Charles Basenga Kiyanda]

Hi,

I'm part of a local group in Montreal, Canada and we keep being
contacted by different other groups (students in a local university, a
disability rights advocacy group, to name two) who are interested in
improving openstreetmap. I'm giving a talk on Tuesday in Concordia's
geography department and we've been reviewing the state of "disability
oriented tagging" (if that's even a proper expression). I've been
focusing mainly on sidewalks and their grade (hence the relation to
key:incline) as that was identified by a student group as a key
information to make available to users.

We reviewed the information on the key:incline here:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:incline

and, thinking of sidewalks, we looked at the city of Toronto, which we
knew had a developed mapping of sidewalks and paths.

Ok, after this preamble, here is a specific question. I'm using
sidewalks and their incline as an example case of accessibility mapping
in the talk given the interest by the professor and the students, so my
question is specific to this topic.

From an accessibility point of view, is it better to map the sidewalk as
a separate entity or to specify the existence of the sidewalk as
metadata on the way representing the street? Here is an example of a
sidewalk mapped as a separate way from the street:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/56435370 . I know both approaches are
generally done, i.e. mapping sidewalks as separate entities and mapping
sidewalks as metadata attached to the way representing the street. From
an accessibility point of view, is there a reason to prioritize one, the
other, or both? I can see how mapping the sidewalk separately allows for
a greater flexibility if the properties of the street and the sidewalk
are different (e.g. if the incline of the street is different from that
of the sidewalk), though I could also see how one could actually be
using both to signal different situations, i.e. favor the "attached
sidewalk model" in the case where there are no obstructions between the
sidewalk and the street, and use the "sidewalk as separate way" in the
case the sidewalk is separated from the street by, let's say, a barrier
with openings too narrow for a wheelchair.

Hence, I'm a bit puzzled by what would be the best approach. I
considered posting to the tagging mailing list, but given this subject
is intertwined with the question of representing accessibility, I
thought I'd try here first.

Thanks very much,

Charles

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