Hosted by the Media and Accessible Design Lab (MAD Lab). September 7, 2024, 2 pm to 5 pm. LightHouse Headquarters, 1155 Market Street, 10th Floor, San Francisco. This event has ASL interpretation.
Maps deepen understanding, broaden perspectives, and encourage engagement with our world. However, people who are blind or visually impaired do not have equal access to maps that the sighted population often takes for granted. As one of the few places in the world—and one of the best—producing high-quality tactile maps, LightHouse’s Media & Accessible Design (MAD) Lab is dedicated to turning inaccessible experiences into inclusive ones.
Page contents:
Program Agenda
2:00 Registration and Refreshments.
2:30 Opening Remarks:
- Greg Kehret, Sr. Director, MAD Lab.
- Sharon Giovinazzo, CEO, LightHouse.
- Dr. Joshua Miele, Amazon Principal Accessibility Researcher, 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
2:45 Presentations and Workshops:
- TMAP (Tactile Maps Automated Production). Speakers: Dr. Joshua Miele and Greg Kehret.
- Reading a tactile map. Speakers: Frank Welte and Jerry Kuns.
- Designing map symbols using nonvisual tools. Speakers: Chancey Fleet and Marco Salsiccia.
- Design a tactile map. Speaker: Naomi Rosenberg.
- Future of digital tactile maps. Speaker: Mike May.
4:30 Panel:
- A conversation about tactile maps with Dr. Joshua Miele, Chancey Fleet, and Dr. Ting Siu.
5:00+ Hands-on Q&A. Stay a bit longer for more hands-on:
- MAD Lab shop tours.
- Use TMAP to make tactile street maps.
- Demos by the speakers.
Thank You To Our Sponsors
Waymo – Tactile Titan Sponsor
Zoox – Platinum Sponsor
Uber – Platinum Sponsor
Sharon Giovinazzo – Silver Sponsor
Three Sticks Wines of Sonoma – Wine Sponsor
Speaker Bios
(alphabetical by first name)
Chancey Fleet
Chancey Fleet is a Brooklyn-based, Blind tech educator and activist. She is the Assistive Technology Coordinator at the New York Public Library. In that role, Chancey curates accessible technology education programs, collaborates across the NYPL system to improve equity of access, and coordinates a diverse team of staff and volunteers who provide one-to-one tech coaching and group workshops, free of charge and open to all.
Through a 2017 NYPL Innovation grant, Chancey founded and maintains the Dimensions Project, a free open lab for the exploration and creation of accessible images, models and data representations through tactile graphics, 3d models and nonvisual approaches to coding, CAD and “visual” arts. Chancey was recognized as a 2017 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and a 2022 David Prize finalist.
Frank Welte
Frank Welte is the Senior Accessible Media and Braille Specialist at LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. A NLS-certified Braille Transcriber as well as lifelong Braille reader and tactile graphics user, he applies his knowledge and experience to the production of high quality materials produced by the Media and Accessible Design Laboratory (MAD Lab) at LightHouse.
In addition to his work at LightHouse, Frank has worked in the IT industry as a programmer and as a software accessibility tester/consultant. He has also worked in the field of disability rights advocacy. Frank has a B.S. in Business Computer Information Systems.
Greg Kehret
At the LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco, Senior Director Greg Kehret heads the Media and Accessible Design Lab (MAD Lab), working with a team that specializes in making the visual tactile, turning inaccessible experiences into inclusive ones by producing braille, and designing tactile images and maps.
Greg has been working in the field of blindness for over 20 years and came to his profession through a childhood best friend who happened to be blind.
Jerry Kuns
As a child with very low vision, Jerry Kuns was educated in a variety of settings including residential schools for the blind and public schools with resource programs. After receiving a B.A. in Social sciences and an M.S. in Counseling Psychology, Jerry worked as a Vocational Counselor and Supervisor for the California Department of Rehabilitation.
In 1975, Jerry helped form Sensory Access Foundation to explore emerging technologies to enhance education objectives and develop employment opportunities for people with visual issues so they could compete with sighted peers. In the late 1980s, Jerry contributed to the formation of HumanWare Inc. a leading manufacturer of a wide variety of adaptive technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. Jerry re-entered the field of education in 2004 as a Technology Specialist for the California Department of Education. He retired in late 2014 and now enjoys consulting for companies developing information access tools.
Josh Miele
Josh Miele is a blind scientist, community leader, and inventor with a history of developing innovative accessibility solutions for blind people, including the LightHouse’s Tactile Maps Automated Production (TMAP) technology. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where he received a BA in physics and a Ph.D. in psychoacoustics, and is the recipient of a 2021 Macarthur Fellowship for his creative contributions to information accessibility.
For over 20 years, Josh based his work at the Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Blindness and Low Vision where he led development of a number of technologies aimed at improving access to education, employment, and entertainment. He is a former member of the LightHouse Board of Directors where he founded LightHouse Labs and served as President for two terms. Since 2019, Josh has been a Principal Accessibility Researcher at Amazon’s Lab126 where he helps guide the non-visual customer experience for Amazon devices and advises widely across the company on inclusive design and accessible research. Josh’s memoir, “Connecting Dots – A Blind Life,” offers engaging insights on his childhood, education, and career, and will be available in March 2025 from Hachette Books.
Marco Salsiccia
Marco Salsiccia is a blind Software Engineer focused on native mobile accessibility at Intuit. His prior roles included working at Deque Systems as a Senior Native Mobile Accessibility Coach and at Lyft as their Accessibility Specialist. Before losing his vision entirely in 2014, Marco was a senior animator, a motion and UX/UI designer, and a quality assurance engineer.
He loves teaching tactile drawing and SVG coding techniques to build tactile and digital graphics, along with helping other blind and low-vision creatives tap into their artistic potential. Introducing people to graphics for the first time or reconnecting folks who lost vision later in life to their creative pursuits drives his passion for education and discovery. He built BlindSVG.com as an approachable and welcoming resource to get anyone into coding their own digital graphics no matter their skill level. Marco also worked directly with the Center for Assistive Technology Training – Northwest to build the Tangible Art & Design Adventures (TADA!) curriculum, a series of activities that teachers can use to introduce blind students to drawing, coding, and SVG concepts. When not coding, drawing, or building websites, Marco is a huge coffee nerd, a San Jose Sharks fanatic, and thoroughly enjoys annoying his cat.
Mike May
Mike May has been a pioneer in new product development since 1980 and was inducted into the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame. He has worked for the CIA, Bank of California, TRW, Arkenstone and was founder and CEO of Sendero Group, developers of the first accessible GPS. He was CEO of the Seattle Lighthouse, Executive Director of Envision WIC and Chief Evangelist at GoodMaps indoor navigation. Mike currently consults for the American Printing House. He has been the principle investigator on several US federal grants to advance wayfinding technologies around the world.
Mike has been on the boards of many nonprofits. He holds the downhill speed skiing record for a totally blind person of 65 MPH. Mike has met Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Obama and Biden. A story of Mike May is told in Robert Kurson’s best selling book, Crashing Through.
Naomi Rosenberg
Naomi Rosenberg is Assistant Director of the Media and Accessible Design Laboratory (MAD Lab) at the LightHouse, developing design standards and processes for tactile maps and graphics produced by 3D printer, embosser, and UV printer. Naomi has produced tactile graphics and 3D models in collaboration with educators and researchers creating curriculum for BVI students. As a designer for the TMAP project, Naomi aims to ensure that the maps are useful to the widest range of BVI travelers and educators. She holds a master’s degree in architecture.
Ting Siu
Dr. Yue-Ting (Ting) Siu is a teacher of blind and low vision students (TVI) and coordinates the Northwest Center for Assistive Technology Training (CATT-NW) at the WA State School for the Blind (WSSB). She loves working with students of all ages with visual impairments and additional disabilities including deafblindness. Her mission is to advance teachers’ proficiency with access technology, promote innovations in multimedia accessibility, and motivate a new generation of “techie TVIs”. Ting is the author of the textbook Access Technology for Blind and Low Vision Accessibility (2020), available from APH Press. Connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn, or bluesky @tviting
Tactile Map Resources
TMAP (Tactile Maps Automated Production)
- Use TMAP to create tactile street maps. Create a free TMAP account at tmap.old.lighthouse-sf.org.
- An brief overview of TMAP: Introduction to TMAP YouTube video.
- Reading a tactile street map with Frank Welte: TMAP Tutorial YouTube video.
- Order a tactile street map from Adaptations Store.
- More TMAP Resources, including Frequently Asked Questions, How to Use TMAP to Make Maps, Printing Instructions, Reading Tactile Maps.
- Email inquiries: tmap@old.lighthouse-sf.org
- Collaborate on improving TMAP via our GitHub Repository. Please enter your contact information on our crowdsourcing form.
Adaptations Store
Adaptations is your online go-to for unique tactile maps not found in other catalogs. Web store: Adaptations.org. Email inquiries: adaptations@old.lighthouse-sf.org. Phone: (888) 400-8933.
MAD Lab (Media and Accessible Design Laboratory)
We specialize in the creation of tactile maps of all types. If you are in need of a map, contact us. MAD Lab website: madlabdesign.org. Email inquiries: madlab@old.lighthouse-sf.org or Contact MAD Lab on our web form.
BART Maps
If you live or teach in the San Francisco Bay Area, you are eligible to request free tactile maps of BART stations and the Salesforce Transit Center. BART Map Request Form.
Speaker-related resources:
- TADA! (Tangible Art and Design Adventures)
- Southwest Center for Assistive Technology (CATT-SW)
- Dimensions Lab, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library (NYPL)
- BlindSVG Projects