SPARK
IncluVisit SA aims to encourage more visitors to explore South Australia.
We do it by helping people with sensory and mobility impairments to find current and relevant to them information about popular tourist destinations in SA.
We gather information about appropriate accessibility facilities present at tourist attractions. The web application we have developed can recommend places based on user preferences and on accessibility facilities.
The solution itself was also developed with accessibility in mind. It includes provisions for people with vision and hearing difficulties. Our user interface can easily change shape to adapt for users with eyesight impairments. It also includes voice narration that can be triggered to describe presented information.
The project leverages data analytics for organising its content and making recommendations to users. Open data sources are used to pull-in and organise content delivery. The summaries for tourist destinations are auto generated using ChatGPT based on the data we have pulled.
Our hope is that by supporting tourists with accessibility needs we can incentivise them to explore more of South Australia and stay here longer.
Information from Data.SA indicates that there were 1875 disability-related complaints in South Australia in past years, with about 34% concerning services (Government of South Australia, 2022). This compelling insight fuelled our drive to advocate for accessible experiences.
We sourced information from open data sources, curating data on geography specifics, user reviews, and points of interest specifically relevant to people with disabilities.
The algorithm is adjustable based on the accessibility needs of a user.
In case of users with mobility issues, the algorithm starts by gathering park boundary data and Digital Elevation Models (DEM) data, which contains elevation values. These datasets are integrated to create a 2D array where each cell holds elevation information for a specific geographic point within tourist destination boundaries. This array is treated conceptually like an image.
Applying edge detection algorithms to this "elevation image" highlights abrupt elevation changes, indicating steep terrain. A quantitative measure of elevation irregularity is computed from these detected changes, assessing the terrain's roughness. A higher measure signifies greater elevation variations.
The algorithm interprets this metric to gauge the mobile accessibility of parks. For individuals with disabilities, particularly those using wheelchairs, navigating constantly ascending and descending terrains can transform a pleasant trip into a challenging ordeal. Parks with lower elevation irregularity metrics are deemed more wheelchair-accessible due to smoother terrain. Conversely, parks with higher metrics may present difficulties, potentially rendering them unsuitable for wheelchair users.
Ultimately, the algorithm categorizes places based on their accessibility, aiding in decision-making for outdoor activities. This multi-step process, from data integration and edge detection to elevation metric calculation and mobile accessibility assessment, provides insights into the terrain's impact on mobile device use within each park's boundaries.
Then, this measure becomes one of dimensions for k-nearest-neighbor algorithm next to other accessibility provisions such as priority parking, vision impairment hints.
If the place has previously been rated, the result that aligns well with user needs emerges at the top of recommendation list.
The project was prototyped using Figma:
* https://www.figma.com/proto/V2aSGgCEoXrtyGJ0MNfpWI/Gov-Hack2023?type=design&node-id=150-992&t=jCh1RLGQ3VXRoyIQ-1&scaling=scale-down&page-id=0%3A1&starting-point-node-id=144%3A682&show-proto-sidebar=1
Then, partially implemented as a web application available online (see our Homepage).
* http://accessibletourism.pythonanywhere.com/
References
Government of South Australia, 2022. SATC Public Complaints 2019-20 to 2021-22. [Online]
Available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/dataset/public-complaints-reporting-south-australian-tourism-commission/resource/807725ba-e8fa-4859-bd81-2a932e5ed6d3
Description of Use Used to calculate the 'very_steep' metric for the recommendation system and accessibility parks segmentation.
Description of Use We use it to get parc boundaries coordinates
Description of Use Used to summarise available accessibility facilities at tourist attractions. Contributed to most of the metrics in our web application
Description of Use The dataset has 'Access to services' service delivery section, which contributes to `accessibility_information` attribute in our web application.
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