Online Maps for the Visually Impaired

A List Apart, the web site about web design, tackles the question of making online maps accessible for visually impaired users. Even though maps are essentially a visual medium, it’s not as strange as it may seem: for author Seth Duffey, it’s a matter of providing data inside a web-based map that can then be parsed by non-visual browsers. In other words, making data embedded within the map accessible outside the context of the map. Duffey, a web developer, tackles the problem using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so I can grasp what he’s doing; GIS developers, on the other hand, may find what he’s doing as elusive as I find geodata most of the time. Via Very Spatial.

Comments