[Accessibility] seeking input on blog post for International day for persons with disabilities and OpenStreetMap

Wed Nov 25 22:58:19 UTC 2020

Hi Mikel! Hope it's okay to put together our response to both emails.

> Do you think this blog post is a good idea?

Yes! OSM has unique potential to contribute to accessibility projects and
awareness about those projects and OSM would be very helpful.

> Is this particular day worthwhile to highlight?

I'm not sure what day this is but the International Day of Persons with
Disabilities is coming up on Dec 3 and it's definitely worthwhile if that's
what you were referring to:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/day-of-persons-with-disabilities

> Are the specific projects, particularly regional projects, we should be
aware of?

Dr. Anat Caspi and I lead the AccessMap (https://www.accessmap.io) and
OpenSidewalks (https://www.opensidewalks.com) projects as part of the
Taskar Center for Accessible Technology (part of The University of
Washington). AccessMap uses OSM data to create individualized accessible
routing plans for people with mobility impairments in multiple cities.
OpenSidewalks is a sister project that focuses on the development and
creation of OSM-compatible accessibility data, typically in OSM. You can
also find us at @TaskarCenter and @OpenSidewalks on social media (mostly
Twitter).

> One way I would love your help is if each of you (and anyone else on
list) could answer the question "How is OpenStreetMap useful for people
with disabilities?" Answer in your own voice in a 2-3 sentences.

When people with disabilities seek out map information, they find that
accessibility information is missing or doesn't account for their personal
preferences; neither companies nor government agencies are consistently
creating connected (network) pedestrian map data flexible enough to meet
the diversity of pedestrian concerns expressed by people with disabilities.
OpenStreetMap is well-suited to fill this informational gap as it has a
flexible and democratically extensible data model, can be mapped out by
locals without waiting for an agency or company to dedicate resources or
take on liabilities, and all data is immediately published and interrogable
by the public. As a result of its infrastructure, community, and open
philosophy, OpenStreetMap has allowed our project to provide individualized
wayfinding information to more and a larger variety of people with
disabilities and to explore more ambitious questions of accessibility than
we could do on our own.

Thanks!

Nick

On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 11:53 AM Mikel Maron <mikel.maron at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jan, Jessica, Holger (we emailed off list) -- thanks! The reception sounds
> positive so we're aiming to go ahead.
>
> One way I would love your help is if each of you (and anyone else on list)
> could answer the question "How is OpenStreetMap useful for people with
> disabilities?" Answer in your own voice in a 2-3 sentences. You can reply
> here, reply directly to me, or edit into the
> https://hackmd.io/UrTjPdI7SKusc3neKkCmHA where we are working on the
> post. I'll then take snippets from the quotes to open up the post.
>
> -Mikel
>
> * Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, November 24, 2020, 11:13:37 AM EST, Jan Schmalfuss-Schwarz <
> jan.schmalfuss-schwarz at tu-dresden.de> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi Mikel,
>
> i am from the faculty of computer science of the Technische Universität
> Dresden and currently we work on a project called AccessibleMaps (
> https://accessiblemaps.de/). On the one hand we want to develop tools for
> the OSM-Community to support the mapping process of buildings which are
> tagged with the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme. Additionally we address
> accessibility features and their representation in indoor maps. On the
> other hand we want to produce applications for blind, visual impaired and
> mobility impaired people. These apps should support the different user
> groups when planning work trips and use SIT from OSM. We think OSM is a
> good project to make accessibility information freely available. Your idea
> for a blog post on the 3rd December is great and we would like to ask if
> and in which way we can contribute to the blog post.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jan Schmalfuß-Schwarz
>
>
> M. SC. Medieninf. Jan Schmalfuß-Schwarz
> Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Zimmer: 1062
>
> Technische Universität Dresden
> Fakultät Informatik
> Institut für Angewandte Informatik
> Professur Mensch-Computer Interaktion
> 01187 Dresden
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Mikel Maron [mailto:mikel.maron at gmail.com]
> Gesendet: Montag, 23. November 2020 18:58
> An: accessibility at openstreetmap.org
> Betreff: [Accessibility] seeking input on blog post for International day
> for persons with disabilities and OpenStreetMap
>
> Hello
>
> The OSMF Communications Working Group is considering a blog post to note
> International day for persons with disabilities, and ways that the
> OpenStreetMap project creates useful data. This is part of a broader
> campaign to raise awareness of OSM in connection with current events.
>
> We wanted to ask for input from people working on accessibility issues. Do
> you think this blog post is a good idea? Is this particular day worthwhile
> to highlight? Are the specific projects, particularly regional projects, we
> should be aware of?
>
> Working notes are compiled here:
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Communication_Working_Group/Blogposts/2020-12_post_01
>
> We'd also love to collaborate on writing this. Let me know if you're
> interested to get more involved too.
>
> -Mikel
>
> * Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Accessibility mailing list
> Accessibility at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/accessibility
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list send an empty email to
> accessibility-unsubscribe at openstreetmap.org
> _______________________________________________
> Accessibility mailing list
> Accessibility at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/accessibility
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list send an empty email to
> accessibility-unsubscribe at openstreetmap.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Accessibility mailing list
> Accessibility at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/accessibility
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list send an empty email to
> accessibility-unsubscribe at openstreetmap.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/accessibility/attachments/20201125/f3ff3010/attachment-0001.htm>