Development of a Tool for Auditing Accessibility of Public Infrastructure and Points of Interest in Urban Areas

Abstract

Lately, the term accessibility attracts more attention globally in policy, but also in scientific and business terms. This is mainly triggered by two key reasons. The first one is its importance for the social performance of communities. Public are becoming more sensitive in social issues lately, and accessibility is considered a cornerstone towards this direction. Moreover, accessibility becomes essential towards sustainable development, due to its business importance. Efficiently handling accessibility issues and accommodating the special needs of people with disabilities may provide a robust business environment and substantial exploit market opportunities. To that end, the need for accessibility, especially in urban environments, is vital and ICT can play a key role towards enhancing accessibility. There are several tools and applications already available to serve this goal. This work presents a novel tool, namely the Seek & Go application, which is a holistic aid application for disabled people with features of a GPS navigation system, especially designed for pedestrians with mobility problems and special accessibility requirements. The paper briefly discusses the key technical aspects, while also presents user experience insights and description of the models and document schemas that have been selected for its development.