Crowdsourcing techniques for augmenting traditional accessibility maps with transitory obstacle information

One of the most scrutinized contemporary techniques for geospatial data collection and production is crowdsourcing. This inverts the traditional top-down geospatial data production and distribution methods by emphasizing on the participation of the end user or community. The technique has been shown to be particularly useful in the domain of accessibility mapping, where it can augment traditional mapping methods and systems by providing information about transitory obstacles in the built environment. This research paper presents details of techniques and applications of crowdsourcing and related methods for improving the presence of transitory obstacles in accessibility mapping systems. The obstacles are very difficult to incorporate with any other traditional mapping workflow, since they typically appear in an unplanned manner and disappear just as quickly. Nevertheless, these obstacles present a major impediment to navigating an unfamiliar environment. Fortunately, these obstacles can be reported, defined, and captured through a variety of crowdsourcing techniques, including gazetteer-based geoparsing and active social media harvesting, and then referenced in a crowdsourced mapping system. These techniques are presented, along with context from research in tactile cartography and geo-enabled accessibility systems.

Keywords:

• crowdsourcing
• accessibility
• blindness

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the support of the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center under BAA #AA10-4733 Contract # W9132V -11-P-0011. We would also like to thank the GMU College of Science for their support in funding the early stages of this research, including the work of Ahmad Aburizaiza.

Notes

1. See http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/pgs/papers/loomis_1985.pdf, accessed November 1, 2012.

2. The UCSB PGS Project research team produced 42 peer-reviewed technical and basic research publications between 1985 and 2008 about system testing, design, and usability. See http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/pgs/publications.htm, accessed November 1, 2012.