[gps-talkusers] Re: Fwd: Mapping the Disney Resort

One of the first public GPS demonstrations we ever did was at Disney Land 
in 1996. We mapped several park points. Main Street and a few other streets 
were already in the map data. We ended up by riding the Eutopia cars and 
yes, the blind people were driving without guides. Not that the GPS helped 
with that.

I will write John off list because a Disney rep was at the recent ATIA 
conference in Orlando and we discussed this various subject.

I also had another experience in 1997 when the Strider GPS won an 
Innovation award and we demonstrated it inside Disney World at a booth for 
3 days. It was a trippy experience to be an exhibit rather than attending 
them. I'll have to calculate the speed of the roller coasters next time I 
go with my PK.

Mike


At 10:42 AM 2/16/2005, you wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>I received the following message and wanted to forward it to the list to
>see if anyone has been to Disneyland and tried to map out the grounds?
>Thanks,
>Kim
>
> >HI,
> >I use the Braille Note with Version 2 of the GPS maps.
> >I work for Disney Travel and book the reservations into our three Disney
> >hotels at the disneyland Resort.
> >I was the first totally blind person hired at the resort in 2003.
> >The resort would also like to begin hiring blind and visually impaired
> >individuals to other resort jobs besides hotel reservations in the future
> >and I have been invited to help with this process.
> >While talking with my supervisor about those jobs blind people could not
> >currently do at the theme parks, I mentioned that getting around
> >disneyland, California Adventure and Down town disney without sighted
> >assistance would be difficult if not impossible.
> >I have always wanted to take my Braille Note with GPS and map out the parks.
> >She thought that was a great idea and we are planning on spending several
> >days at disneyland to se if this experiment would work.
> >If disneyland works out I could then do the same for California Adventure,
> >Down town disney and the three resort hotels.
> >
> >I am wondering if anyone has tried to walk through disneyland and
> >basically create wave points and points of interest in files that could be
> >used for other blind people.
> >In creating such a file it would be possible for blind people to navigate
> >around disneyland and could also result in blind people being hired to
> >work in the park.
> >Do you know if anyone has attempted this project?
> >My experience with using GPS is very limmited in that I just haven't had
> >the time to spend since being hired by disney Travel.
> >My goal is to become very vamiliar with the various keystrokes and
> >commands which would then allow me to create POIS and Wave Points in a
> >Disneyland file which I could ultimately share with other blind people who
> >might want to visit the park on their own.
> >I was planning to identify every trash can, bench, restaurant, shop,
> >bathroom and attraction in this file.
> >
> >Perhaps others could do something similar for other amusement parks in
> >California and throughout the country and world.
> >What do you think?
> >Is such a project feasible?
> >John

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