Project Sidewalk

2012–Present https://projectsidewalk.org/ Explore the Code 156

AltGeoViz

2024–Present
Accessibility for Whom?

2024–Present
Accessible Pathway Mapping using LiDAR

2023
LabelAId

2023–2024
BusStopCV

2023–Present

Project Description

Roughly 30.6 million individuals in the US have physical disabilities that affect their ambulatory activities; nearly half of those individuals report using an assistive aid such as a wheelchair, cane, crutches, or walker. Despite comprehensive civil rights legislation for Americans with disabilities, many city streets, sidewalks, and businesses remain inaccessible. The problem is not just that street-level accessibility affects where and how people travel in cities but also that there are few, if any, mechanisms to determine accessible areas of a city a priori.

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

Accessibility for Whom? Perceptions of Mobility Barriers Across Disability Groups and Implications for Designing Personalized Maps

Chu Li, Rock Pang, Delphine Labbé, Yochai Eisenberg, Maryam Hosseini, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2025 | Acceptance Rate: 24.9% (1249 / 5020)

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, physical accessibility, urban accessibility, sidewalks, sidewalk images, sidewalk visualization, personalized maps

PDF | doi | Citation | Code | Project Sidewalk • Accessibility for Whom?

Validating Pedestrian Infrastructure Data: How Well Do Street-View Imagery Audits Compare to Government Field Data?

Sajad Askari, Devon Snyder, Chu Li, Mikey Saugstad, Jon E. Froehlich, Yochai Eisenberg

Urban Sci 2025

keywords: crowdsourcing accessibility, urban accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Towards Fine-Grained Sidewalk Accessibility Assessment with Deep Learning: Initial Benchmarks and an Open Dataset

Alex Liu, Kevin Wu, Minchu Kulkarni, Mikey Saugstad, Peyton Rapo, Jeremy Freiburger, Maryam Hosseini, Chu Li, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 66.7% (58 / 87)

keywords: computer vision, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, vision transformers, obstacle detection

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

Chu Li, Katrina Ma, Mikey Saugstad, Kie Fujii, Molly Delany, Yochai Eisenberg, Delphine Labbé, Judy L. Shanley, Devon Snyder, Florian P. Thomas, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 26.3% (1060 / 4028)

keywords: urban accessibility, sidewalk assessment, disability advocacy, service learning, community science, project sidewalk

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

Chu Li, Zhihan Zhang, Mikey Saugstad, Esteban Safranchik, Minchu Kulkarni, Xiaoyu Huang, Shwetak Patel, Vikram Iyer, Tim Althoff, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2024 | Acceptance Rate: 26.3% (1060 / 4028)

keywords: machine learning, human+AI, community science, Programmatic Weak Supervision, snorkel

PDF | doi | Citation | LabelAId • Project Sidewalk

Multiple-Stakeholder Perspectives on Accessibility Data and the Use of Socio-Technical Tools to Improve Sidewalk Accessibility

Delphine Labbé, Yochai Eisenberg, Devon Snyder, Judy L. Shanley, Joy Hammel, Jon E. Froehlich

Disabilities 2023

keywords: urban informatics, urban accessibility, sidewalks, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk equity, ada transition plans

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

Kie Fujii, Katrina Ma, Chu Li, Mikey Saugstad, Lisa Stolarz, Michael Starr, Florian P. Thomas, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASCIP 2023 Annual Meeting 2023

keywords: sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, sidewalk problems, sidewalk visualization, disability advocacy, civic tech, community organizing

PDF | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Implementing a Community-Based Virtual Tool To Characterize Sidewalk Accessibility in a Northern New Jersey (NJ) Town

Kie Fujii, Katrina Ma, Chu Li, Mikey Saugstad, Michael Starr, Lisa Stolarz, Florian P. Thomas, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of CMSC 2023 Annual Meeting 2023

keywords: sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, sidewalk problems, inclusive cities

PDF | Citation | Poster | Project Sidewalk

Scaling Crowd+AI Sidewalk Accessibility Assessments: Initial Experiments Examining Label Quality and Cross-city Training on Performance

Michael Duan, Sho Kiami, Logan Milandin, Johnson Kuang, Mikey Saugstad, Maryam Hosseini, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of ASSETS'22 2022 | Acceptance Rate: 58.9% (43 / 73)

keywords: computer vision, urban informatics, deep learning, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment

A Pilot Study of Sidewalk Equity in Seattle Using Crowdsourced Sidewalk Assessment Data

Chu Li, Lisa Orii, Mikey Saugstad, Stephen J. Mooney, Yochai Eisenberg, Delphine Labbé, Joy Hammel, Jon E. Froehlich

UrbanAccess 2022

keywords: urban informatics, sidewalk equity, data science, spatial patterns

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Sidewalk Equity

Participatory Design of Crowd+AI Tools to Map, Analyze, and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility

Yochai Eisenberg, Delphine Labbé, Sierra Berquist, Judy L. Shanley, Joy Hammel, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of TRANSED 2022

keywords: urban informatics, urban accessibility, sidewalks, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, sidewalk visualization

PDF | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Designing Interactive Data-Driven Tools for Understanding Urban Accessibility at Scale

Manaswi Saha

UW CS PhD Dissertation 2022

keywords: urban accessibility, sidewalks, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, sidewalk problems, urban visualization, sidewalk visualization

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • AccessVis • Accessibility-Infused Maps

Towards Global-Scale Crowd+AI Techniques to Map and Assess Sidewalks for People with Disabilities

Maryam Hosseini, Mikey Saugstad, Fabio Miranda, Andres Sevtsuk, Cláudio T. Silva, Jon E. Froehlich

CVPR2022 Workshop: Accessibility, Vision, and Autonomy (AVA) 2022

keywords: accessible cities, urban informatics, urban accessibility, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, sidewalk visualization

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Deep Learning for Sidewalk Assessment

Visualizing Urban Accessibility: Investigating Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives through a Map-based Design Probe Study

Manaswi Saha, Siddhant Patil, Emily Cho, Evie Yu-Yen Cheng, Chris Horng, Devanshi Chauhan, Rachel Kangas, Richard McGovern, Anthony Li, Jeffrey Heer, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2022 | Acceptance Rate: 24.7% (637 / 2579)

keywords: design probes, urban accessibility, geo-visualization, sidewalk accessibility, urban visualization, sensemaking, sidewalk visualization

PDF | doi | Citation | Talk | Project Sidewalk • AccessVis • Accessibility-Infused Maps • Multi-Stakeholder Interviews to Examine Urban Accessibility

Sidewalk Gallery: An Interactive, Filterable Image Gallery of Over 500,000 Sidewalk Accessibility Problems

Michael Duan, Aroosh Kumar, Mikey Saugstad, Aileen Zeng, Ilia Savin, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of ASSETS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 61.8% (55 / 89) | Best Artifact Runner-up Award

keywords: crowdsourcing accessibility, sidewalks, human mobility, sidewalk problems, image gallery, open data

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Sidewalk Gallery

Experimental Crowd+AI Approaches to Track Accessibility Features in Sidewalk Intersections Over Time

Ather Sharif, Paari Gopal, Mikey Saugstad, Shiven Bhatt, Raymond Fok, Galen Weld, Kavi Dey, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of ASSETS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 61.8% (55 / 89)

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, urban informatics, urban accessibility, tracking urban change

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Urban Accessibility Evolution

Urban Accessibility as a Socio-Political Problem: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis

Manaswi Saha, Devanshi Chauhan, Siddhant Patil, Rachel Kangas, Jeffrey Heer, Jon E. Froehlich

CSCW 2020

keywords: urban informatics, urban accessibility, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, policy, civic tech, socio-political challenges, disability rights

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

Jon E. Froehlich, Mikey Saugstad, Edgar Martínez, Rebeca de Buen Kalman

Extended Abstract Proceedings of Civic Tech 2020

keywords: urban informatics, urban accessibility, Mexico, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, disability rights

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Towards Mapping and Assessing Sidewalk Accessibility Across Socio-cultural and Geographic Contexts

Jon E. Froehlich, Mikey Saugstad, Manaswi Saha, Matthew Johnson

Extended Abstract Proceedings of Data4Good 2020

keywords: urban informatics, urban accessibility, sidewalks, Mexico, sidewalk assessment, sidewalk accessibility, policy, disability rights

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Interactive Computational Tools for Assessing and Understanding Urban Accessibility At Scale

Manaswi Saha

SIGACCESS Newsletter 2020

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, accessible cities, physical world accessibility, street-level accessibility, accessibility map visualizations, crowd-powered streetview accessibility, urban accessibility

PDF | Citation | Project Sidewalk • AccessVis • Accessibility-Infused Maps

Deep Learning for Automatically Detecting Sidewalk Accessibility Problems Using Streetscape Imagery

Galen Weld, Esther Jang, Anthony Li, Aileen Zeng, Kurtis Heimerl, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of ASSETS 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 25.9% (41 / 158) | Best Paper Award

keywords: mobility impairments, computer vision, urban informatics, deep learning, sidewalks, neural networks

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

Manaswi Saha, Mikey Saugstad, Teja Maddali, Aileen Zeng, Ryan Holland, Steven Bower, Aditya Dash, Sage Chen, Anthony Li, Kotaro Hara, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 23.8% (705 / 2960) | Best Paper Award

keywords: mobility impairments, gis, wheelchair, crowdsourcing, urban accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Code | Project Sidewalk

Grand challenges in accessible maps

Jon E. Froehlich, Anke Brock, Anat Caspi, Joao Guerreiro, Kotaro Hara, Reuben Kirkham, Johannes Schoning, Benjamin Tannert

Interactions 2019

keywords: accessibility, mobility impairments, gis, accessible urban navigation, accessible cities, visual impairments, accessibility map visualizations

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

Ladan Najafizadeh, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2018

keywords: computer vision, google street view, urban informatics, urban data mining, urban accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Urban Accessibility Evolution

Interactively Modeling and Visualizing Neighborhood Accessibility at Scale: An Initial Study of Washington DC

Anthony Li, Manaswi Saha, Anupam Gupta, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2018

keywords: urban informatics, information visualization, urban data mining, urban accessibility, geo-visualization, walkability index

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Accessibility-Infused Maps • AccessVis

SIG: Making Maps Accessible and Putting Accessibility in Maps

Anke Brock, Jon E. Froehlich, Joao Guerreiro, Benjamin Tannert, Anat Caspi, Johannes Schoning, Steve Landau

Extended Abstract Proceedings of CHI 2018

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, accessible urban navigation, accessible cities, physical accessibility, touchscreen accessibility, accessible interfaces

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Accessibility-Infused Maps

A Pilot Deployment of an Online Tool for Large-Scale Virtual Auditing of Urban Accessibility

Manaswi Saha, Kotaro Hara, Soheil Behnezhad, Anthony Li, Mikey Saugstad, Teja Maddali, Sage Chen, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2017

keywords: mobility impairments, gis, crowdsourcing, urban accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Scalable Methods to Collect and Visualize Sidewalk Accessibility Data for People with Mobility Impairments

Kotaro Hara

UMD CS PhD Dissertation 2016

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, accessible public transit, accessible urban navigation, accessible cities, physical accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Temporal Tracking Urban Areas using Google Street View

Ladan Najafizadeh

UMD CS MS Thesis 2016

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, accessible cities, physical accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

The Design of Assistive Location-based Technologies for People with Ambulatory Disabilities: A Formative Study

Kotaro Hara, Christine Chan, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2016 | Acceptance Rate: 25.0% (600 / 2400)

keywords: accessibility, mobility impairments, formative study, gis, navigation, trip planning

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

Kotaro Hara, Jon E. Froehlich

SIGACCESS Newsletter '15 2015

keywords: crowdsourcing accessibility, computer vision, google street view, amazon mechanical turk, personalized routing, accessibility map visualizations

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Scalable methods to collect and visualize sidewalk accessibility data for people with mobility impairments

Kotaro Hara

Extended Abstract Proceedings of UIST 2014

keywords: accessibility, crowdsourcing accessibility, accessible public transit, accessible cities, urban informatics, physical world accessibility

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

Tohme: Detecting Curb Ramps in Google Street View Using Crowdsourcing, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning

Kotaro Hara, Jin Sun, Robert Moore, David Jacobs, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of UIST 2014

keywords: crowdsourcing accessibility, computer vision, google street view, amazon mechanical turk

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme

An Initial Study of Automatic Curb Ramp Detection with Crowdsourced Verification using Google Street View Images

Kotaro Hara, Jin Sun, Noa Chazan, David Jacobs, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of HCOMP 2013

keywords: computer vision, accessible urban navigation, mechanical turk, data collection, accessible cities, physical accessibility, crowdsourcing, google streetview, crowd verification

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme

Exploring Early Solutions for Automatically Identifying Inaccessible Sidewalks in the Physical World using Google Street View

Kotaro Hara, Victoria Le, Jin Sun, David Jacobs, Jon E. Froehlich

HCIC2013 Workshop 2013

keywords: computer vision, google street view, machine learning, crowdsourcing, physical world accessibility, street-level accessibility

PDF | Citation | Project Sidewalk • Tohme

Combining Crowdsourcing and Google Street View to Identify Street-level Accessibility Problems

Kotaro Hara, Victoria Le, Jon E. Froehlich

Proceedings of CHI 2013

keywords: crowdsourcing accessibility, google street view, accessible urban navigation, mechanical turk, data collection, accessible cities, physical accessibility, wheelchair, urban informatics

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

A feasibility study of crowdsourcing and google street view to determine sidewalk accessibility

Kotaro Hara, Victoria Le, Jon E. Froehlich

Extended Abstract Proceedings of ASSETS 2012

keywords: crowdsourcing accessibility, google street view, accessible urban navigation, mechanical turk

PDF | doi | Citation | Project Sidewalk

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