04.05.23 - From visual to tangible: towards inclusive geodata with tactile mapping

What do you do when you are lost ? You open you phone and enter your destination into your prefered navigation map or maybe still take a paper map. But what about blind people?
 
Today, geography, cartography and GIS are everyday tools to enable data to provide us with information. Geodata are appealing because of their visual aspect and the way they can be represented. Shouldn't this data be accessible to everyone? This is the question Ellen Zielman asked herself last year at the Geospatial World Forum. She described her experience as a blind person and her difficulty in using conventional maps. Together with Vincent van Altena of Kadaster, they have developed a pilot project for a "tactile map": a 3D map with Braille indications. Other universities such as Leeds, University of North Georgia, and UC Davis have undertaken similar projects with 3D printed maps.

If this pilot seems difficult to realize on a large scale, it is now time to ask the question about making maps for everyone. Geodata are such a rich source of information that it would be a shame to deprive a part of the population of it. This is a challenge that artificiel intelligence, 3D printing technologies could help to solve.

#experience #map #inclusion #tactilemap