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Using Crowdsourcing to Improve Accessibility of Geographic Maps on Mobile Devices

Authors:
Tania Calle
Sergio Luján

Keywords: Web accessibility, map, crowdsourcing, geographic information, SVG Tiny, mobile devices.

Abstract:
The continuous growth of the use of technology and mobile applications means that more people have access to information published on the web, including geographic information. However, for visually impaired people interaction is difficult if maps are not accessible. For this reason, in this paper we analyze accessibility barriers of webpages with geographic content presented on mobile devices. With the purpose of showing an alternative to improve accessibility in these pages, this study proposes the use of a technique called crowdsourcing, i.e., a group of people that voluntarily access to webpages and provide information about physical accessibility and a general description in each map element (point, line or polygon). This description is written into the Scalable Vector Graphics Tiny (SVG Tiny) code. SVG Tiny is used to represent geographic maps with HTML. In this way, screen readers can interpret the descriptions to visually impaired people, thus making maps more accessible.

Pages: 150 to 154

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: February 22, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4138

ISBN: 978-1-61208-382-7

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dates: from February 22, 2015 to February 27, 2015