On Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 4:31 PM Michael Sidoric via Talk-us <talk-us@openstreetmap.org> wrote: > Another consideration is accessibility. > Not taking sides but besides aesthetics and nomenclature seems there needs to > be some way for routing and tags to reflect whether a route is ‘safe’ or > accessible. > > I map for several blind friends and many paths have unexpected (and > dangerous) overhead hazards that a cane cannot detect. > > Thoughts?
Accessibility for people with impairments, of whatever sort, is really complicated to characterize, because it depends so strongly not only on the nature of the impairment, but on the compensating abilities of the individual, and the other available resources. For instance, a blind person who works with a dog may have no trouble with the overhead hazards if the dog is trained to alert at them. I have heard of profoundly blind hikers completing some of the longest and toughest trails in the USA with the assistance of their assistive devices and dogs. On the other hand, I know other partially sighted individuals who have trouble with the most trivial of barriers and will hardly leave their homes without a health aide. For many paths, which have had no attention paid to accessibility, it would mean characterizing the specific hazards, their location and dimensions, or else the system would degenerate into, 'this path wasn't designed for accessibility, so persons with any (unspecified) impairment shouldn't be there." Which is like far too many busybody social workers telling people, "people with your impairment can't do that!" instead of working out what they *can* do and what sort of accommodation can make it possible. I don't know enough about the field to characterize what the obstacles and hazards are, but it's surely more than a binary "blind people should/shouldn't do this". Alas, with the state of the map as far as I can foresee, the default for many paths will almost have to be that virtually any barrier or hazard may exist until asserted otherwise, so the tagging would have to be 'free of barrier XYZ (except as noted?)' rather than 'warning: barrier XYZ here.' Too many mappers are like me and wouldn't know how to make the assessment. Unfortunately, that isn't the sort of path that I mostly map, except in my own neighbourhood. Many of the paths that I've mapped have guidebook descriptions that include language like 'Grade 2. The trail is relatively level, but stout waterproof boots are recommended in all but the driest of seasons, and hikers should be prepared to detour around beaver activity,' or 'Grade 3+/4. The rock is sound, holds are plentiful, and route-finding is easy. Nevertheless, the exposure is dramatic and less confident parties may wish to bring a rope.' _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
