OSM for the blind

OSM is the map for everything and everyone, so some projects have been started to provide accessibility to the OSM services for blind and visually impaired persons.

OSM for the blind is the name of this group of projects.

Contents 1 How to map for the blind 2 See the map for the blind: Project blindmap 3 A new map for the blind: an interactive audiobook atlas called "Look and Listen Map" 4 I am blind - How can I help ? - Project blindOSM 4.1 You can donate your tracks 4.2 Other things one can do 5 I can see - How can I help ? - Project blindOSM 5.1 Help to work on tracks 5.2 Add relevant tags to the blindmap 5.3 Other things 6 I am a developer - How can I help? 7 Mailing list / Twitter 8 Mapping Parties / Testing areas 9 Sponsors and Contributors 10 Projects from the "OSM for the blind" team from Hannover 11 Projects from other teams 12 Project ideas 13 Tags / Proposals 14 Related topics

How to map for the blind

If you want to make the map accessible for blind persons, these are the things to pay attention to:

• Accuracy is important. If you estimate a POI, add FIXME=position estimated to your entry, so the next mapper will check the coordinates
• Learn to know and use the tags for the blind, see below.
• Add POIs that are of interest:
  • Public transportation stops with platforms, use tactile_paving=yes/no,
  • pedestrian crossings with and without acoustic guidance traffic_signals:sound=yes/no, vibration traffic_signals:vibration=yes/no and sloped kerbs (look at DE:Rollstuhlfahrer-Routing,
  • pedestrian crossings with islands crossing=traffic_signals;island crossing=uncontrolled;island
  • elevators with or without braille writing or embossed printed letters
  • meeting locations of organizations of the blind and visually impaired
  • shops for optical glasses, eye doctors and hospital departments for eye diseases.
  • POIs that offer special products for the blind.
  • POIs that offer special accommodations for the blind like Cinemas with narrator, museums with acoustic / mp3-guides, braille menus, etc.
• If you add POIs, it is better to add buildings and put an exact entrance node at the entrance. Try not to add POIs as the estimated middle of a building.
• If you map house numbers with Karlsruhe Schema, put an exact entrance node at the entrance.
• If mapping streets, add parking lanes, bicycle lanes and footways as lanes with number of lanes and/or width-tag.
• Add surface=* tag to footways - this is appreciated when a white cane (blind man's stick) is used.
• You can check your edits on http://blind.accessiblemaps.org

See the map for the blind: Project blindmap

There is a beta version available of a visual map with map features displayed that are of special interest to blind and visually impaired persons at

• BlindMap

note: This map is now MapJumper compatible

A new map for the blind: an interactive audiobook atlas called "Look and Listen Map"

• Oct. 21, Look and Listen Map wins Torsten Brand Preis 2011.
• Online map and routing portal for blind persons, see Look and Listen Map
• Look and Listen map won a prize in the German WissensWert competition for project ideas about open data / open knowledge.
• Programming of the Look and Listen Map has started in 2011 in Paderborn, Germany.
• Sponsors wanted!

I am blind - How can I help ? - Project blindOSM

If you want to support the OpenStreetMap project, here is how you can do it:

You need

• Symbian cellphone with a screenreader (e.g. N80 with Nuance Talks) and Loadstone-GPS from [1] or
• Windows Mobile cellphone with a screenreader (e.g. with Mobile Speak) and a logging software.

You can donate your tracks

Do the following steps once:

• Get GPSBabel for your computer operating system.
• Go to http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/new and register for an OpenStreetMap user account.

Do the following steps whenever you want to donate a track:

1. When you walk, ride or drive around with Loadstone, turn the tracking function on. Choose a filename including:
   • walk/bike/car/bus/rail
   • Start position name
   • Destination position name
   • Type of the way (residential street / footpath / motorway / rail / tram / unknown)
   • Name of the city
   • Name of the district
   • Name of the country
   • Use .nmea as file extension.
2. When at home, download the files to your computer.
3. Use GPSBabel to convert the .nmea files to .gpx.
4. Go to http://www.openstreetmap.org/traces/mine and Browse for one of the files, add the description you know from the filename and add "blindOSM" and the parts of the filename mentioned above as keywords. Click the public checkbox to make sure the other users can see your tracks! (I will publish that the tracks with "blindOSM" are collected by blind users and that other users are welcome to create streets from them.)
5. Repeat 4. for each file.
6. Find the tracks with "blindOSM" as a tag: http://www.openstreetmap.org/traces/tag/blindOSM
7. Find the information if it has been worked on your tracks here: blindOSM

Hints:

• If you collect tracks for streets that are missing in OSM, then make separate tracks for each street and put the street's name in the description.
• Walk up and down on both sides of the street to get a good result.
• Do not start the tracking function until your GPS has at least 5 satellites in view.
• You can check if somebody has worked on your tracks by using the OSM converter on the Loadstone web page.

Other things one can do

• Translate wiki pages to your language.
• Translate http://www.loadstone-gps.com/ to your language and send the files to the owners of the site.
• Get in contact with the local OSM community by searching for your city's name in this wiki.
• Collect POIs in Loadstone and name them well. It is planned to import this information to OpenStreetBugs.
• Join the discussion. Join the mailing list by sending an email to accessibility-subscribe@openstreetmap.org.
• Test navigation applications that use OpenStreetMap data. Write to the developers for accessibility improvements. Publish your testing results here in the wiki.
• If you are a developer, get in contact with Lulu-Ann - There are many ideas for small and big projects.
• Take part in the OSMtracker display resolution survey and vote for the option to support screenreaders.
• Put hiking trails for the blind into the map like this one: [2], marked with "BL".

I can see - How can I help ? - Project blindOSM

Help to work on tracks

Find tracks recorded by blind persons at:

• http://www.openstreetmap.org/traces/tag/blindOSM

You can help to work on them.

IMPORTANT: Please add the status here, when you have worked on the tracks: BlindOSM

Add relevant tags to the blindmap

• Add relevant tags in your area for the blindmap.

Other things

Of course you can also do things from the list for the blind like translating wiki pages (see above).

I am a developer - How can I help?

• See OSM_for_the_blind/Developers

Mailing list / Twitter

There is a mailing list about accessibility and OSM:

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/accessibility

Sens an email to [3] to join.

See this page in other languages for the mailing lists in those languages.

Mapping Parties / Testing areas

Ongoing:

• Lütgendortmund

Took place:

• Hannover, Germany: "Park der Sinne"
• Hannover, Germany: "Landesbildungszentrum für Blinde"
• Marburg, Germany
• ... list your mapping party for the blind here.

Sponsors and Contributors

OSM-Contributors, who support this project, can add the category to their user page

[[Category:OSM_for_the_blind-Contributor|Username]] 

Special thanks go to

• DanielH - Programmer of LoroDux
• Wunni for loaning a Nokia N80 Symbian OS phone.
• Torsten Brand from Nuance Talks & Zooms for a developer license of the screenreader.
• Greg Fields from R.I.M for loaning a Blackberry.
• Hönigsberg & Düvel International Group for paying the programmer for an internship.
• Higa4 for translating wiki pages to Japanese.
• Arimo64 and maheshinder for uploading tracks to BlindOSM.
• Lulu-Ann and Bahnpirat for working on the tracks from the blind.
• Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Dennert-Möller for offering Lorodux as a bachelor task at Fachhochschule Hannover, Germany.

Projects from the "OSM for the blind" team from Hannover

• HaptoRender for tactile maps
• LoroDux for non graphics pedestrian navigation (for use with a screen reader)
• Look and Listen Map
• OSM Braille True type font with OSM compatible license.

Projects from other teams

• [4] Osmarender output printed by a viewplus graphical embosser (pictures only)
• Loadstone GPS tool for Symbian OS Phones for use with a screen reader
• OpenVoiceNav OSM Direction tool for Visually Impaired
• Interactive Audio-haptic map is one application of project HyperBraille
• AmauroMap research project describing maps in words. Testlink: [5]

focussing on Maps for Blindes based on OSM data - it does also many interviews with blindes upon their needs but does not publish them.

• the research project AmauroMap started 2009 tries to describe maps in words so that they are accessible with screenreaders or braille; status April 2010: first prototype ready, but lacks of semantic translation; Link: AmauroMap Prototyp
• [6] Osmarender output printed by a viewplus graphical embosser (pictures only)
• OpenVoiceNav OSM Direction tool for Visually Impaired (Platform?)
• WikiProject Indoor and outdoor human sized objects
• Accessible Routing - a routing web service for disabled people

Project ideas

• Import Loadstone-GPS POIs to OpenStreetBugs
• Load a .gpx track and tell the route in words
• ...

Tags / Proposals

• Phonetics
• tactile maps
• tactile paving
• schools for the blind
• DisabilityDescription Free text information relevant for disabled persons.
• amenity=vending_machine, vending=excrement_bags - for simple selling point for dog-excrement-bags for guide dogs (de: `Spender für Hundekot-Tüten)
• amenity=veterinary

To do:

• traffic lights with sound (see Tag:highway=traffic_signals):
  • traffic_signals:sound=yes/no
  • traffic_signals:vibration=yes/no
• building=entrance on nodes
• automatic doors at entrances
• Public computers with equipment for visually impaired people
• Dunkelrestaurants (A restaurant that is totally dark, where blind people are the waitors and seeing people eat to learn how it is to be blind as an event.)
• Portugal: [www.acapo.pt] Supermarkets with assistence for blind persons + braille printing / We need a tag for that!
• (add your needs here)

Related topics

• (red-green) Some color blind persons can work with OpenStreetMaps better than with Google Maps, because they contain less green. However, grey buildings blend in with pink roads, as people with red/green color-blindness don't have a strong response to red, so for others OpenStreetMaps are harder to use than Google Maps.