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From: Tomlins Diane
Date: Wed, Mar 29 2017 1:39PM
Subject: accessible campus map?
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Yesterday I was asked if there is a way to make a hospital's campus/building map accessible. What they have now is just a map image in a PDF, so that's not good. What would be the best method of doing this, providing it can be done? Only thing I can think of would be some kind of image map, but does that work in a pdf??

Any input or resources you can share greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Diane
Accessibility Advocate
HCA

From: Jeremy Echols
Date: Wed, Mar 29 2017 1:48PM
Subject: Re: accessible campus map?
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There was a great example in the WebAIM training about this sort of situation. I am not the authority here, but what I recall was this: you can't make a complicated image "accessible", but you can try to think of it in terms of "what is the purpose of this image?" So for instance, the London underground map is complicated to look at even for sighted users, so how can it possibly be accessible? Well, why do people look at a map? To figure out how to get from one point to another, typically. The London underground map was made accessible first by providing a list of stops for different lines, so the information was available in a textual format. Then they added a web app to give directions based on a start and end point. In this instance, making it more accessible actually improved the experience for all users.

This doesn't necessarily translate to a campus map, but the general thought process may be of help. What information does the map convey, and is there a different format or approach to convey that information in a way that everybody can access?

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but maybe it can help....

From: Jennifer Sutton
Date: Wed, Mar 29 2017 2:09PM
Subject: Re: accessible campus map?
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Here are a number of resources about making maps accessible.

This question seems to come up fairly often, either on here or on the
Access Technology in Higher Ed. Network (ATHEN) email list, so if
anybody has newer stuff, hope they'll chime in.


Jennifer



http://accessibility.psu.edu/images/maps/

http://www.pcc.edu/resources/disability/accessible-building-features.html#sy-cc-1

http://www.accessiq.org/news/news/2015/03/accessibility-tip-making-maps-accessible

https://www.accessibilityoz.com/2014/07/someone-say-map/

http://wiki.accessibilityoz.com.au/doku.php/checklists/maps/start

https://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/wiki/Accessible_Maps
[don't have time to check on the status of this project right now]

http://examples.simplyaccessible.com/svg-maps/
[example using SVG for the U.S., as I recall.]

From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Wed, Mar 29 2017 4:01PM
Subject: Re: accessible campus map?
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Hello Diane,
The most accessible is to use beacon technology. I believe onesense has
done this with Fresno State.
This allows the blind person to hear through a GPS-like app what beacons
are around them. So if there are doors with beacons they can find them and
know where they are, if they put beacons in bathrooms, they can hear where
to look for the sink, if there are cleaning carts, the beacon can tell the
blind person to watch out for mops.
3D maps are good, but they are hard to find, take a long time to read and
are not always up to date. Beacons give a lot more information to both
sighted and blind people.
Thanks,


Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;

On Wed, Mar 29, 2017 at 12:39 PM, Tomlins Diane <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Yesterday I was asked if there is a way to make a hospital's
> campus/building map accessible. What they have now is just a map image in a
> PDF, so that's not good. What would be the best method of doing this,
> providing it can be done? Only thing I can think of would be some kind of
> image map, but does that work in a pdf??
>
> Any input or resources you can share greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
> Diane
> Accessibility Advocate
> HCA
>
> > > > >

From: Tomlins Diane
Date: Thu, Mar 30 2017 11:11AM
Subject: Re: accessible campus map?
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Thanks Brandon, good to know :) Obviously the hospital would have to make that investment and set that up, but it would certainly be great thing to do.

Thanks also to Jennifer and Jeremy for the suggestions and resources.

Diane R Tomlins
HCA IT&S | Digital Media
Accessibility Advocate