WheelieMap

Abstract

The built environment remains a persistent accessibility challenge for people with mobility impairments. Whilst platforms to report these inaccessible locations exist, the underlying documentation processes are verbose, timeconsuming and fail to effectively communicate the barrier at hand. We propose WheelieMap, a platform which uses the motion of manual wheelchair users to support the identification and documentation of potentially problematic locations. WheelieMap captures and segments device video footage and GPS as evidence of the problematic space, which can then be shared with both other people with disabilities and the relevant authorities. We document the use of the WheelieMap prototype by both manual wheelchair users and planning experts through semi-structured interviews. The qualitative findings revealed this approach to be the most viable route for documenting inaccessibility, compared to the existing alternatives. We also offer guidance on how to design and develop similar community driven reporting and annotation systems in the accessibility setting.

Spokespeople

“…They are equally applicable to other types of transport including walking, public transport and driving. The potential value of this work also extends to wheelchair users, who might for example report and curate experiences about inaccessibility in the built environment [26]. Using Spokespeople with groups of citizens travelling by more than one mode of transport also opens up the opportunity to use annotated routes data to promote dialogue between different groups.…”

JourneyCam

“…As such, tools that allow the capture and elucidation of disabled experiences of accessibility and mobility are a necessary first step in wider processes of socio-political engagement. Recent work has identified the potential for adapted smartphones to support the capture of video and data by wheelchair users to document urban accessibility issues [37]. However, such systems have not yet been implemented in ways to support self-directed (rather than semi-automated and ongoing) data capture by users, nor address wider issues of urban mobility beyond physical access.…”

“…Similarly, 'Spokespeople', a tool which captures 'annotated routes', enables cyclists to augment GPS traces of their journeys with onthe-go audio comments or post-journey textual descriptions for reflection, discussion, and civic discourse [51]. Images have been used to log place-based maintenance issues with civic agencies [14], an approach that has been investigated in the context of wheelchair users [37,66]. Kirkham et al used sensor-triggered video segmentation to semi-automate the logging and mapping of accessibility barriers for manual wheelchair users [37].…”

“…Images have been used to log place-based maintenance issues with civic agencies [14], an approach that has been investigated in the context of wheelchair users [37,66]. Kirkham et al used sensor-triggered video segmentation to semi-automate the logging and mapping of accessibility barriers for manual wheelchair users [37]. However, downward-and rear-facing video clips alone were found to be lacking important contextual information that would assist with the interpretation of access barriers.…”

“…Not only are there privacy concerns about 'sousveillance' [49] but there is also a problematic history of research done 'on' disabled people rather than 'with' or 'for' them, highlighting the need for emancipatory research practices which empower disabled people (see [38,56]). We thus wanted to enable participants to take an active role in initial video capture (in contrast to [37]), through a purposeful interaction to start recording.…”