Colored maps can be a major source of frustation for colorblind people. While research has been done by cartographers, many maps still disregard the special requirements for allowing a map to be read with a reduced color space. Online maps are no exception even though theoretically the dynamic nature of them could allow for options like multiple color schemes or even selective highlighting of specific map features.

Johannes Kröger, a student of geomatics from Germany, has been working on the street color rendering of the map on openstreetmap.org to analyse and improve its accessibility for people with color vision deficiencies. To test his hypotheses and the work he has done in his bachelor thesis he is currently looking for participants in an » Online Survey «.

The survey takes about 20 minutes, longer for some people, shorter for others. Simple map images are presented with the task of identifying street classes. It is a bit tedious and repetitive but that is the price for hopefully solid scientific results. It can be paused at any time.

Special interest would be in tritanopic (“blueblindness”) and achromatic (“colorblind”) people, since the participants so far have been mostly (expectedly) the more common forms of color vision deficiency in the red/green area. The survey is not suited for people with heavily affected focus eyesight though, so that might sadly limit the possibilities for participation of the completely colorblind.

Please join the online survey of Johannes Kröger and see, if you can see it…