Published on April 25, 2019
About 3.6 million adults in the United States use a wheelchair to get around, according to census data.
But unless you’re one of those people, you might not know how hard it is to get around your city.
Now people can help map out accessibility here in Seattle. University of Washington researchers have led the development of Project Sidewalk, an online crowdsourcing game that lets anyone with an internet connection use Google Street View to virtually explore neighborhoods and label curb ramps, missing or rough sidewalks, obstacles and more. Project Sidewalk first launched in Washington, D.C., and it’s now available in Newberg, Oregon — near Portland — and Seattle.
“A lot of people think this is something where you walk around your neighborhood and take pictures of accessibility problems with your smartphone,” said corresponding author Jon Froehlich, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “But Project Sidewalk is not like that at all. There’s no assumption that you have any physical experience with what you’re reporting on. That is the key difference. Anyone can do it from anywhere, as long as they have a web browser.”
Continue reading at UW News.
Originally written by Sarah McQuate for UW News.