Recruitment, Training, and Social Dynamics in Geo-Crowdsourcing for Accessibility

Abstract

Transitory obstacles in the built environment of George Mason University present a great inconvenience and hazard to visually- and mobility-impaired individuals. Accessing realtime information provides great benefits by allowing people with disabilities to assess the potential hazard of an obstacle and find alternative routes in a short period of time. As an emerging technique, geo-crowdsourcing allows for the utilization of community members to collect and share valuable geographic information associated with transitory events. A survey has being conducted to examine current applications of crowdsourcing. Furthermore, the training program of various successful applications of geocrowdsourcing has been reviewed. Finally, a training program has being designed and implemented for recruiting and motivating contributors to participate in an obstacle reporting system.