For those who couldn't attend the live stream, my talk from last weekend's State of the Map is up on the official Peertube of OSM France. Text with a Purpose - The role of well-curated POI data in building of the image of the world for blind users. Sadly a little less live presentations than I initially imagined but still gives a pretty good idea how I use the different tagged data beyond the typical navigation. #Accessibility #Blind #OpenStreetMap peertube.openstreetmap.fr/w/iN…

reshared this

in reply to Paweł Masarczyk
Hey there, have you tried out Audiom? Here are some example maps: xrnavigation.io/gallery/ and here's the main Audiom website, where you can also find a basic tutorial: audiom.net we're always looking to improve, and the more feedback (positive or negative even) the better. Have a great day!
in reply to Stevo
@stevo399 Hey and thanks for the contact. I have mentioned you in my talk, albeit briefly, that falls again under the heading of less practical demonstrations than initially planned. I think Audiom deserves a separate Talk of its own so that the navigation and mechanisms can be explored in depth. Thanks for the amazing work you're doing.
in reply to Pierre est dans les limbes
@Pngt Thank you for all of your support and making my talk possible. Today is my last day in Paris and I've had so much fun - I think I visited most places connected to the city's academic institutions, learnt so much about the French cuisine and the Minitel. Today's destination is the Mundolingua linguistic museum.
in reply to Paweł Masarczyk

I've just listened to the entire talk, and the one burning question I have, what can you map when you cannot see (well)? Like, you cannot see most venue names, opening hours, phones etc — I rarely see those repeated in braile (only in malls). So is POI mapping out?

For parks, I guess you need to bump into benches and waste bins, touch trees to know their location and map them?

Asking this not to dissuade from mapping, but wondering on what to focus making an editor for a blind person.

in reply to Ilya Zverev
@zverik For common POI such as restaurants, shops, hotels and businesses the three first strategies that come to mind would be 1. Asking one of the employees on site; 2. Consulting their website; 3. Confirming with Google Maps. If I were determined enough I could also use OCR or AI based text recognition apps to read the signage for me. Mapping new places might be indeed a bit of a problem since I can't indicate the exact mapping location, all I could do is use my current location (coordinates) and mark that spot as the center of the place's location. Someone at the State told me that should be enough for a start and later other mappers could move the pin as needed to make it more accurate.
in reply to Ilya Zverev
@zverik That is a feature an accessible editor could perhaps also have: scan the door with the camera and try to recognize any pattern such as the hour format, phone number etc. Any work on accessibility however, should start with tidying up the semantic accessibility tree so that such an interface reads logically with a screen reader.
in reply to Ilya Zverev
@zverik A practical example from yesterday: I'm still in Paris and was on my way somewhere. The IDF Mobilites app told me I can catch my connecting bus at a certain stop. I found the stop in Seeing Assistant Go but the bus indicated in the public transit app was not listed as a relation (rel_no). Upon arriving at that particular stop, it turned out that the bus I needed is indeed served on there in addition to the one already listed on OSM. I would love to correct that information.
in reply to Paweł Masarczyk
@Paweł Masarczyk @Ilya Zverev I agree with all of this. First the blind mappers should concentrate on ammending existing pois with new and / or missing data similar to how @MapComplete operates. For example if you are on a buss stop you can fill in if it has a bench a shelter and similar. After getting more comfortable with mapping it should be documented how to map new objects. I am always afraid to add something new as I am not sure it's inline with the imagery.
in reply to Peter Vágner

@pvagner @zverik I did a lot of work a few years back to have MapComplete accessible via screenreaders. Most of the functionality should work (only editing opening hours was a bit too complicated to do via a screenreader)

One if the additions requested by an actually blind person was 'shake your phone to reveal current address and nearby POI'

in reply to MapComplete
I am sometimes using @MapComplete on my PC in a web browser to check near by pois. The screen reader interaction is mostly fine. I like the feature where it is possible to scroll the map with arrow keys and get near by features reported with a screen reader as they appear on the map. There are some unlabelled buttons but it generaly works well. I should try it on a mobile phone with running GPS. @Ilya Zverev @Paweł Masarczyk

MapComplete reshared this.

in reply to Peter Vágner
@pvagner @MapComplete @zverik Upon a quick test on iOS with VoiceOver and Safari I can't see that it works with a touch screen. I see no way of exploring the points for a selected topic for my current location. I'll try on a desktop after I'm back from my holiday in a week or so. Thanks for the great work that you do.
in reply to MapComplete
@MapComplete @pvagner @zverik I think the easiest way, and I'm not sure to what extent it might ruin the idea behind the app, would be to implement a list of points nearby, showing each place as a semantic element e.g. a button or link, with the accessible name e.g. aria-label combining all of the details visible to sighted users e.g. the name, the distance and any other features of note contained within tags. This could also be a nice accommodation for those who might find the map view confusing.
in reply to MapComplete
@MapComplete @pvagner @zverik By the way: I see you're located in Belgium. That's where I'll be for the next week. Should you wish to see a blind person using Map Complete or any other OSM tool in action, I'm still quite flexible.☺️
in reply to Paweł Masarczyk
Awesome talk! I wrote about you in the SOTM 2026 supplement to the Italian August monthly newsletter: community.openstreetmap.org/t/…