SIG: Making Maps Accessible and Putting Accessibility in Maps

Digital maps represent an incredible HCI success—they have transformed the way people navigate in and access information about the world. While these platforms contain terabytes of data about road networks and points of interest (POIs), their information about physical accessibility is commensurately poor. Moreover, because of their highly graphical nature and reliance on gesture and mouse input, digital maps can be inaccessible to some user groups (e.g., those with visual or motor impairments). While there is active HCI work towards addressing both concerns, to our knowledge, there has been no direct effort to unite this research community. The goal of this SIG is threefold: first, to bring together and network scholars and practitioners who are broadly working in the area of accessible maps; second, to identify grand challenges and open problems; third, to help better establish accessible maps as a valuable topic with important HCI-related research problems.