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trend in environments with large, active end-user communities (2009b).
Although typical end-users are not trained cartographers or tactile map
experts, the geographical expertise and temporal relevance of contributed
geospatial information makes it extremely valuable. Based on the ideas of
Coulson et al. (1991) and Goodchild (2009), we are creating a methodol-
ogy to incorporate real-time user-contributed geospatial information into
existing accessibility-oriented mapping systems. The functional center-
piece of this methodology is the use of a localized gazetteer, which allows
mapping of placename-based descriptions into geographically referenced
map locations. These georeferenced end-user contributions can be incorpo-
rated into existing mapping systems oriented towards blind and visually-
impaired persons, and triggered by proximity as a blind or vision-impaired
end-user navigates through a mapped location. Our methodology focuses
on near real-time incorporation of environmental obstacles or hazards, but
recognizes that the approach can be useful in joining a variety of user-
contributed information to existing mapping systems.
2- Approach and Methods
Our methodology for delivering user-contributed geographic information
to blind and vision impaired individuals follows a process shown in Figure 1 .
This flow of information starts with observations in a geographic envi-
ronment. These observations are time-stamped and contributed through
voice communication, email, text message, or through social media up-
dates. The observations are analyzed for geographic content, generally
through geoparsing for local placenames, distances, spatial prepositions,
and temporal information. The observations are then matched to entries in
a localized gazetteer developed for the university campus with features
associated to a geographic location. The location, consisting of a georefer-
enced footprint connected to a placename, is plotted on a network or inte-
grated into a map display. The location is available as a text-to-voice
prompt on an accessibility map of the local campus. The location can be
explored using standard mouse interaction from a fixed location or can be
triggered using a location sensitive application that issues a proximity alert
and a text-to-voice prompt. This allows for the display of transient obstacles
or hazards on a map, and for those obstacles or hazards to be communi-
cated to the blind and visually-impaired using assistive mapping interfaces
described by Golledge et al. (2006).
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