Geospatial accessibility and inclusion by combining contextual filters, the metaverse and ambient intelligence.

Accessibility and inclusion in information systems provide guidelines and methods for building applications and devices that work for everyone, including for people with disabilities and other diverse characteristics. Systems that apply accessible and inclusive design (AID) provide an easy way to adapt features for people with different capabilities. In geospatial applications and wearable technology, aspects of location and time should be taken into account as well. In this paper we present a visionary approach of applying contextual filters to the input, output and the underlying dataset of geospatial applications, to examine adaptation of systems, devices and applications to different populations and for verification of accessibility and inclusion. The goal of AID is to help developers add accessibility features to their systems and provide transparency regarding lack of accessibility when needed, e.g., make it clear if there are features that prevent usage by people who lack certain abilities. We explain how to apply AID in physical and virtual worlds, like the metaverse , and we describe how ambient intelligence, accessibility maps and virtual worlds can assist in building accessible and inclusive geospatial applications. We present our vision and elaborate on related challenges and research directions.