{"id":36705,"date":"2023-04-18T10:42:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T14:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/?p=36705"},"modified":"2023-04-22T21:14:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T01:14:41","slug":"accessibility-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/visualization\/accessibility-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining Accessibility in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The ability to navigate freely without physical restrictions in an urban city is a comfort that can be overlooked in everyday life. For this lab, I wanted to explore accessibility measures in place for New York City . To do this, I looked into datasets available online that provide useful information, beneficial to those with permanent\/short-term disabilities but also to other communities such as the elderly. By examining accessibility in NYC we can get a picture of what needs to be improved. The main questions I had in mind for my visualizations when researching my topic were: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What can we learn from the datasets available for this topic?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How accessible is New York City? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Inspiration: <\/h1>\n\n\n
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The map on the right showcases the view of what the map on the left looks like for the colorblind author.
Image Source: (Baio, 2023)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In my last critique for class, I came across a visualization in an article which pointed out the shortcomings of the map, “Homicide Rates by County<\/em>“. The map uses shades of red and green which to my surprise are not colorblind safe for those that have some kind of color-blind deficiency. The author of the article goes into detail of how he actually sees the physical and digital world, whilst also advocating for accessibility in design. I was inspired by his writing to attempt to make an color-blind friendly visualization that showcases my research into NYC accessibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methodology<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The first part of my process was identifying the datasets I would use for my visualizations. Firstly, I navigated NYC Open Data<\/strong> to begin my research, where I found several datasets I wanted to implement into map visualizations. In addition, data.ny.gov<\/strong> had handy information about NYC subway entrance and exit data which I used for my first map. I also gathered datasets of NYC cartography which would act as a base for my other dataset layers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next part of my process was working with the tool called QGIS<\/strong>, which was used to create the final map visualizations. For this project, I did not have to clean up any of the datasets before integrating them with QGIS. I was able to create the maps based on the trustworthy data provided by my resources. The process of creating the visualizations using QGIS was a long process mainly because the software has many options for the visualization to explore. I would eventually come to use only shapefiles and CSV’s as the file formats selected to integrate with QGIS. In addition, I used Adobe Illustrator to create the legends and Microsoft Excel to create supplementary visualizations. Furthermore, the following datasets were explored and the items with asterisks were eventually used in the final visualizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Digital City Map<\/a>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subway Lines<\/a>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parks Properties<\/a>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NYC Transit Subway Entrance And Exit Data<\/a>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accessible Pedestrian Signal Locations<\/a> *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedestrian Ramp Locations<\/a>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directory of Accessible Parks Facilities and Programs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Lastly, through my research I learned that there are color schemes that can be used to make visualizations more colorblind friendly. For the most part, the colors selected for the visualizations are from the vibrant color scheme, based on a resource I found by instrument scientist Paul Tol. (Tol, 2021) I also made conscious choice to use different symbols (triangle and circle) in my first map because I had two values I wanted to exemplify. Therefore allowing a person to not only rely on color to distinguish between the two variables.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Vibrant Color Scheme by Paul Tol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Visualization<\/h1>\n\n\n\n