Tactile Maps for Accessible Flood Mitigation Planning

Keywords: cartography, tactile, accessibility, disasters, user experience
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 14

Abstract

Maps are used extensively in natural hazard mitigation planning in order to assess a community's vulnerability to disasters and to develop strategies for mitigating those impacts. However, except in extremely rare cases, these maps are either printed on paper or displayed on a screen, meaning that they are almost entirely inaccessible to blind people and those with very low vision. To address this, my research evaluates the use of tactile maps for flood mitigation planning. In my talk, I give a brief overview of the map design process, discussing how different considerations in the hazard mitigation planning process informed the production of the maps. I also discuss how study participants responded to using tactile maps for tasks that one might encounter in a flood planning scenario, both using maps by themselves and with a sighted partner. Preliminary results suggest that lack of confidence in understanding tactile maps presents a significant barrier to wide implementation in the mitigation planning process, even though map comprehension – especially with a partner – is fairly high. A significant contributing factor to map user hesitation is braille literacy, which has potentially significant implications for future map design. I offer suggestions for how these issues could be addressed, as well as directions for future research.