[nfb-talk] Maps for the blind

[Aaron Cannon]

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Hi all.  I have gotten rather frustrated by the lack of accessible maps.
The US government publishes enough map data to enable someone to write a
program that would be able to produce accessible maps.  What I envision is
something like the following.

You go to a web page, you type in the address or intersection, city state
and/or zip code of interest and you are taken to a page with something like
the following:

You walked south for 250 yards from the intersection of E Jefferson St. and
S Clinton St.  You are now at the intersection of S Clinton St. and E
Washington St in Iowa city, IA.  You can:

* Travel north on S Clinton St. to E Jefferson St. and S Clinton St.

* Travel East on E Washington St. to Dubuque St. and E Washington St.

* Travel south on S Clinton St. to ...

You get the idea.  All of the items marked with stars are links.

I would also like to see a service similar to MapQuests driving directions,
except that this would be for pedestrians and give more detailed
information, such as which streets you cross on the way there, ETC.

Again, the data is freely available for anyone who wants it.  All that is
needed is a program to get it into a usable form and serve it up.  Of
course, I make it sound so simple, and it isn't, but it can be done.

Thoughts?

Aaron


- --
Skype: cannona
MSN/Windows Messenger: cannona at hotmail.com (don't send email to the hotmail
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