The status of wheelchair-tagged OpenStreetMap point data in European capital cities

Abstract

For a person with walking disability, one of the important information is whether a street has a wheelchair-friendly infrastructure or not. Accessing this information quickly and accurately is crucial. Believing that it will be very convenient to get this information from a single platform, some volunteers enrich OpenStreetMap (OSM) data with a wheelchair=* tag that provides information whether a street, building, or any feature in OSM is suitable (or not) for wheelchair use. However, since the tagged data is insufficient in many urban areas, OSM data still requires contributions. This study examines points of interest in Ankara comparing with five capital cities of Europe in terms of the statistics of the wheelchair tag contributions. The result shows that Ankara has fewer POIs compared to other cities and volunteers should be attracted to increase the number of wheelchair tagged POIs.