The City of Helsinki was interested in diverse and scalable ways of data collection on accessibility of their public spaces, specifically in the Jätkäsaari area. Through EIT Urban Mobility’s RAPTOR start-up incubator, the city was paired with Dreamwaves, an Austrian spatial audio navigation startup focused on accessibility. As part of this project, Dreamwaves was tasked with improving access to information about accessibility in the city through collecting crowdsourced data, particularly on temporary obstacles on streets and public spaces, on an openly accessible platform.

The objective of our work was to propose, deliver, and analyze the results of a Citizen Experience research project aimed at supporting the pilot implementation of Dreamwaves’ platform, unpacking how to engage citizens in mapping public space accessibility issues using Dreamwave’s platform. 

This project aimed to better understand public space users' experiences with accessibility challenges and identify the types of information that would be most valuable to access on a digital platform. Additionally, the project sought feedback on users' willingness to participate in a crowdsourced solution.

Using mixed qualitative research methods both remotely and on-site (interviews, online surveys, observations, etc.), we cross-checked Dreamwaves’ solution proposal with the specific context in Helsinki. We paid particular attention to the application’s response to the needs of its direct users, focusing specifically on the blind and visually impaired, as well as potential contributors. 

The research uncovered context-specific challenges related to the proposed data collection methods, which were tied to the personal experiences of the citizens of Helsinki and motives behind contributing – while visually impaired people were very aware of the need of a platform like this, those that did not encounter navigation problems were less responsive and thus interested in contributing. By combining the experiences of Helsinki's inhabitants with the possibilities and potential of Dreamwaves’ data collection system, we outlined the best-fitting follow-up actions and scenarios, which included communication campaigns and ideas on diverse user engagement paths.