Project Description
This project describes a two-pronged vision: first, to develop scalable data collection methods for acquiring sidewalk accessibility information using a combination of crowdsourcing, computer vision, and online map imagery, and second, to use this new data to design, develop, and evaluate a novel set of navigation and map tools for accessibility. Our overarching goal is to transform the ways in which accessibility information is collected and visualized for every sidewalk, street, and building façade in America.
Publications
Towards Fine-Grained Sidewalk Accessibility Assessment with Deep Learning: Initial Benchmarks and an Open Dataset
Extended Abstract ASSETS 2024 To Appear | Acceptance Rate: 66.7% (58 / 87)
PDF | doi | Citation | Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment • Project Sidewalk
“I never realized sidewalks were a big deal”: A Case Study of a Community-Driven Sidewalk Audit Using Project Sidewalk
CHI 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 26.3% (1060 / 4028)
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk + Community Science • Project Sidewalk
LabelAId: Just-in-time AI Interventions for Improving Human Labeling Quality and Domain Knowledge in Crowdsourcing Systems
CHI 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 26.3% (1060 / 4028)
PDF | doi | Citation | LabelAId • Project Sidewalk
Multiple-Stakeholder Perspectives on Accessibility Data and the Use of Socio-Technical Tools to Improve Sidewalk Accessibility
Disabilities
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Multi-Stakeholder Interviews to Examine Urban Accessibility
Implementing a Community-Based Virtual Tool To Characterize Sidewalk Accessibility in a Northern New Jersey (NJ) Town
Extended Abstract ASCIP 2023 Annual Meeting
Implementing a Community-Based Virtual Tool To Characterize Sidewalk Accessibility in a Northern New Jersey (NJ) Town
Extended Abstract CMSC 2023 Annual Meeting
PDF | Citation | Poster | Project Sidewalk
Scaling Crowd+AI Sidewalk Accessibility Assessments: Initial Experiments Examining Label Quality and Cross-city Training on Performance
Poster Proceedings of ASSETS'22 | Acceptance Rate: 58.9% (43 / 73)
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment
A Pilot Study of Sidewalk Equity in Seattle Using Crowdsourced Sidewalk Assessment Data
UrbanAccess 2022
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Sidewalk Equity
Participatory Design of Crowd+AI Tools to Map, Analyze, and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility
Extended Abstract Proceedings of TRANSED 2022
Designing Interactive Data-Driven Tools for Understanding Urban Accessibility at Scale
UW CS PhD Dissertation
PDF | doi | Citation | AccessVis • Accessibility-Infused Maps • Project Sidewalk
Towards Global-Scale Crowd+AI Techniques to Map and Assess Sidewalks for People with Disabilities
CVPR2022 Workshop: Accessibility, Vision, and Autonomy (AVA)
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment
Visualizing Urban Accessibility: Investigating Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives through a Map-based Design Probe Study
CHI | Acceptance Rate: 24.7% (637 / 2579)
PDF | doi | Citation | Talk | AccessVis • Multi-Stakeholder Interviews to Examine Urban Accessibility • Accessibility-Infused Maps • Project Sidewalk
Experimental Crowd+AI Approaches to Track Accessibility Features in Sidewalk Intersections Over Time
Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 61.8% (55 / 89)
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Urban Accessibility Evolution
Sidewalk Gallery: An Interactive, Filterable Image Gallery of Over 500,000 Sidewalk Accessibility Problems
Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 61.8% (55 / 89) | Best Artifact Runner-up Award
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Sidewalk Gallery
Urban Accessibility as a Socio-Political Problem: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis
CSCW
PDF | doi | Citation | Talk | Project Sidewalk • Multi-Stakeholder Interviews to Examine Urban Accessibility
Sidewalk Accessibility in the US and Mexico: Policies, Tools, and A Preliminary Case Study
Extended Abstract Workshop Proceedings of Civic Tech 2020
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Towards Mapping and Assessing Sidewalk Accessibility Across Socio-cultural and Geographic Contexts
Extended Abstract Data4Good
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Interactive Computational Tools for Assessing and Understanding Urban Accessibility At Scale
SIGACCESS Newsletter 2020
PDF | Citation | AccessVis • Accessibility-Infused Maps • Project Sidewalk
Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery
Proceedings of ASSETS 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 25.9% (41 / 158) | Best Paper Award
PDF | doi | Citation | Code | Project Sidewalk • Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment
Project Sidewalk: A Web-based Crowdsourcing Tool for Collecting Sidewalk Accessibility Data at Scale
Proceedings of CHI 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 23.8% (705 / 2960) | Best Paper Award
PDF | doi | Citation | Code | Project Sidewalk
Grand challenges in accessible maps
Interactions
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Accessibility-Infused Maps
A Feasibility Study of Using Google Street View and Computer Vision to Track the Evolution of Urban Accessibility
Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2018
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Urban Accessibility Evolution
Interactively Modeling and Visualizing Neighborhood Accessibility at Scale: An Initial Study of Washington DC
Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2018
PDF | doi | Citation | AccessVis • Accessibility-Infused Maps • Project Sidewalk
SIG: Making Maps Accessible and Putting Accessibility in Maps
Extended Abstract Proceedings of CHI 2018
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Accessibility-Infused Maps
A Pilot Deployment of an Online Tool for Large-Scale Virtual Auditing of Urban Accessibility
Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2017
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Temporal Tracking Urban Areas using Google Street View
UMD CS MS Thesis
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Scalable Methods to Collect and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility Data for People with Mobility Impairments
UMD CS PhD Dissertation
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
The Design of Assistive Location-based Technologies for People with Ambulatory Disabilities: A Formative Study
Proceedings of CHI 2016 | Acceptance Rate: 25.0% (600 / 2400)
PDF | doi | Citation | Accessibility-Infused Maps • Project Sidewalk • Multi-Stakeholder Interviews to Examine Urban Accessibility
Characterizing and Visualizing Physical World Accessibility at Scale Using Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning
SIGACCESS Newsletter '15
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Scalable methods to collect and visualize sidewalk accessibility data for people with mobility impairments
Extended Abstract Proceedings of UIST 2014
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Tohme: Detecting Curb Ramps in Google Street View Using Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning
Proceedings of UIST 2014
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme
An Initial Study of Automatic Curb Ramp Detection with Crowdsourced Verification using Google Street View Images
Poster Proceedings of HCOMP 2013
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme
Exploring Early Solutions for Automatically Identifying Inaccessible Sidewalks in the Physical World using Google Street View
HCIC2013 Workshop
PDF | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme
Combining Crowdsourcing and Google Street View to Identify Street-level Accessibility Problems
Proceedings of CHI 2013
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
A feasibility study of crowdsourcing and google street view to determine sidewalk accessibility
Poster Proceedings of ASSETS 2012
PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk
Videos
Project Sidewalk: Crowd+AI Techniques to Map and Assess Every Sidewalk in the World
Project Sidewalk: Crowd+AI Techniques to Map & Assess the World's Sidewalks
Don't Forget about the Sidewalk: The Role of Mobility Management and Coordination
Project Sidewalk Chi Hack Night
Talks
Feb. 29, 2024 | NSF Smart and Connected Communities Panel on “Pathways to Transitioning Project Outcomes"
Nashville, Tennessee
PDF | PPTX | Project Sidewalk + Community Science | Project Sidewalk | Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment
Dec. 14, 2022 | ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems)
Tacoma, Washington
Dec. 13, 2021 | Spatial Data Science Symposium 2021
Virtual
PDF | PPTX | AccessVis | Accessibility-Infused Maps | Project Sidewalk
May 28, 2021 | PhD Generals Exam
Virtual
PDF | AccessVis | Accessibility-Infused Maps | Project Sidewalk
Jan. 22, 2020 | Google Tech Talk
Seattle, WA
PDF | PPTX | Urban Accessibility Evolution | Transportation Analytics | Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment | AccessVis | Accessibility-Infused Maps | Project Sidewalk
Sept. 30, 2019 | WSRO 2019 Keynote
Spokane, WA
PDF | PPTX | Project Sidewalk
May 7, 2019 | CHI'19
Glasgow, UK
PDF | PPTX | Project Sidewalk
Oct. 9, 2018 | Change Seminar
University of Washington, Seattle
Nov. 15, 2017 | UW CSE Affiliates 2017
Seattle, WA
Oct. 13, 2017 | DUB Retreat
University of Washington, Seattle
PDF | PPTX | MakerWear | BodyVis | Ondulé | Project Sidewalk
June 7, 2017 | UMD CS Staff Talk
University of Maryland, College Park
PDF | PPTX | MakerWear | BodyVis | HandSight | Project Sidewalk
May 25, 2017 | HCIL Symposium 2017
College Park, Maryland
April 13, 2017 | HCDE Invited Talk
University of Washington, Seattle
PDF | PPTX | MakerWear | BodyVis | HandSight | Project Sidewalk
April 11, 2017 | UW CSE Colloquium
University of Washington, Seattle
PDF | PPTX | MakerWear | BodyVis | HandSight | Project Sidewalk
April 6, 2017 | Lecture Series at the Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences
LTS Auditorium, College Park, MD
PDF | Pervasive Thermography | MakerWear | BodyVis | HandSight | Project Sidewalk
Feb. 8, 2017 | WalkHackNight II
Arlington, Virginia
Nov. 7, 2016 | Diversity in Computing Summit 2016
College Park, Maryland
Nov. 3, 2016 | Technica: Tech+X Talk Series
University of Maryland, College Park
Nov. 3, 2016 | GroupSight @ HCOMP2016
Austin, Texas