But Blind People Don't Drive!!

When we took on the work to create the real-time traffic site for the San Francisco Bay Area, we were asked to make the site as section 508-compliant as possible. Rather than asking ourselves, "What is the letter of the law for Section 508?", we chose to ask "What does accessibility mean?"

We met with our client's Elderly and Disabled Advisory Committee (EDAC) and gained insight into the needs and preferences of differently-abled users. We also worked closely with the dynamic and boisterous Erika Webb, a specialist in accessible design from Quintus Design. Our goal was to create a site that was not just accessible, but useful, to people with disabilities.

The big challenge here was the real-time traffic map. The literature at the time said it was not possible to make a truly accessible dynamic geographic information systems-based site. We put a lot of time and thought into this seemingly-unanswerable question and, in the end, decided to ask a better question. Rather than asking "How can we make a dynamic map that sight-impaired people can use?",we asked "What do people get from a traffic map anyway?"

The answer is simple - people get information from maps. Sighted people can make great use of the visual content of maps, which is why GIS systems are so valuable. But the vision-impaired need a different method of presentation, one not tied to visual cues -- and that's what we provided.

We created a text-based application which presents the the information of the map in tabular format, giving users with screen readers quick access to specific information.

In addition, we designed our real-time map with a variety of color palettes, to improve usability for color-blind users.

While we were working these problems out, some exasperated team members objected, "But blind people don't drive!" After all, the whole point was to tell people where to drive, right?

Well, no.

A real-time traffic site doesn't tell people where to drive. That's not the point. The point is to tell them when it's good to go and what routes to avoid. To time shift their trip. To change mode. To avoid clogging the roadway.

Now, consider the trip of someone who is visually impaired. Their trip needs to be scheduled in a way most of us would consider unacceptable. First they schedule their ride, either with a caregiver, a private service, a taxi, paratransit or transit. With the exception of transit, that vehicle then needs to come get them. Then they go someplace - usually paying some amount of cash per trip.

Now, imagine you are in the Bay Area where trips are often a cross-region hike. Your cab first has to get to you. If traffic is bad, you may have already had to wait for that longer than anticipated. Now, the moment you get in the cab, you are charged for time. If you get out onto 880 and sit ... that costs you real money, real fast. At the same time, it annoys the cab driver because they cannot get out and get other fares.

So, blind people have a greater need for this detailed traffic information than perhaps anyone else.

Since we launched the site, we've received several kudos for the accessibility, the best worded came the other day:

Just wanted to commend you guys on including a colorblind-friendly option
for the traffic congestion maps. I had been looking at the map with the
regular color scheme, lamenting the fact that it's almost useless for a
red/green colorblind person, when I checked out the other color options.
This is the first time I've seen us colorblind folks accommodated anywhere!
It's much appreciated.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Eugene Gogerman, Esq.

Note the key word "anywhere". The solutions to our accessibility issues were conceptually easy to implement. Sure, the exact color palettes took a while to work out. But the problems were still minimum compared to the cost of closing out a large segment of people from having access to information generated with their tax dollars. 
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