Taskar Center for Accessible Technology

We are excited to invite you to OpenThePaths 2025: Advancing Complete Streets Through, Data, Collaboration, and Advocacy!

📍 Our annual mini-conference at the University of Washington brings together experts and advocates to explore transportation and mobility equity solutions. Over the past decade, we’ve made incredible strides in prioritizing walkability, accessibility, and active transportation.

🗺️ This year, we are proud to launch OS-CONNECT, the first-ever statewide, standardized sidewalk dataset for Washington State, funded by the WA state legislative proviso.

📅 We hope you can join us this March 27th and 28th to hear from transportation advocates from all sectors, and learn more about the OS-CONNECT dataset!

🔗 Register now at tinyurl.com/openthepaths2025!

Calling all trip planners!
We want your feedback about how to improve AccessMap.app

Read below about our paid survey opportunity-
💡Step 1: Get started
Create your route and customize mobility preferences, if needed.
💡Step 2: Follow the Route
Start the navigation after planning your trip.
💡Step 3: End the Trip
Exit the navigation window to launch the survey.
💡Step 4: Rate the Trip
Rate your session to access the post-trip survey.
💡Step 5: Post-Trip Survey
After submitting your rating, a link to the post-trip survey will appear.
💡Step 6: During the Survey
Some things to note while you complete the survey- Don't edit the trip ID #, and be sure to provide your email so we can pay you!

Get started now at AccessMap.app in any browser!

Ready to kick off the new year with purpose? Join our OpenSidewalks Team Challenge! 🚶‍♀️🗺️

Help us improve sidewalks and accessibility in your community while having fun and making a difference. 🌟
Sign up by Dec 27 at TinyURL.com/HNY25/ to get started!

Together, we can make our streets better for everyone. Let’s map for change! ✨

🎉 Congrats to Finn and his team, Mochi Island, the Walktober Team Challenge Champions! 🎉

A special shoutout to Finn, a student at Lakeside Middle School who led an effort that completed over 100 quests in GoInfoGame this Walktober! His impressive efforts contributed more than 800 attributes and data points about the public right-of-way in Shoreline’s downtown area, paving the way for a more accessible and inclusive community, and specifically helping to create an accessibility map of the pedestrian ways in the area.

Finn's contributions will be part of the Washington State Unified Sidewalks Dataset—a first-of-its-kind resource dedicated to transportation data equity, funded by Washington State Proviso ESB 1124 .111 and spearheaded by the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology. This data will go public, open and live in June 2025, offering a comprehensive look at sidewalk accessibility across the state and also contributing to our routing application, AccessMap.app

Want to learn more about the proviso initiative and the Transportation Data Equity Initiative? Visit sidewalks.washington.edu

Interested in joining a future team challenge or have a friendly at your organization? Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter at TinyURL.com/TCATsignup

Let’s work together toward an accessible future!

Yesterday, I was so deeply grateful for the opportunity to present to the White House, again, at the WH conference on hashtag . This incredible moment is the culmination of years of dedicated work with the support of Washington State Department of Transportation, Microsoft and USDOT Office of Research and Technology Joint Program Office (JPO) . I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the amazing students and staff at the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology who have supported the vision for the Transportation Data Equity Initiative, and AccessMap. Their hard work and commitment have been instrumental in reaching this milestone.

There's so much work to do! We continue to build capabilities and incorporating them into the Transportation Data Equity Initiative, essemtial to fulfilling the White House vision of a complete transportation data observatory (https://lnkd.in/gffXuGF6). Together, we can continue to advance this important work and create a safer, more equitable transportation system for all.

picture: White Housee panel "AI in Transportation: Mapping, Visualizing, and Building the Future." This panel focused on developing a national transportation infrastructure observatory and an accompanying application ecosystem (resonant with the infrastructure). Help us continue to advance . sign up to support our work, today! https://tinyurl.com/TCATSignUp