Inclusive Cartography Seminar Series: Seminar 1

Seminar 1 – Vincent van Altena, senior researcher, Kadaster, the Netherlands, co-chair ICA Working Group on Inclusive Cartography and Jakub Wabiński, researcher and lecturer, Institute of Geospatial Engineering and Geodesy, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.

Date: 9 October 15:00 CET

Link: https://meet.google.com/dwr-ytbz-cih

Abstract: In the first of a series of bi-monthly seminars hosted by the International Cartographic Association’s Inclusive Cartography Working Group, Vincent and Jakub will shortly introduce the aim, activities and achievements of the Working Group. One of the recent achievements of the group is the publication Tactile Mapping – cartography for people with visual impairments – a collaboration of more than 30 contributors from all over the world, sharing insights from academia, practitioners and personal stories from people with visual impairments. Vincent and Jakub will discuss the concepts behind the initiative, the impact they hope the book will have on knowledge sharing and elaborate on the process of bringing an idea to fruition. As a sneak preview, they will also share some highlights from the book. At the end of the session, there will be time for Q&A.

Speaker bios:
Vincent van Altena, senior researcher, Kadaster, the Netherlands, co-chair ICA Working Group on Inclusive Cartography, holds a bachelor’s degree in theology, an MSc in geographical information science, and a PhD in spatial-temporal interpretation of early Christian literature. At Kadaster, Vincent has worked on topographic mapping, automated generalisation, and tailored customer solutions. He participated in international projects, including the European Location Framework, and has also chaired Esri’s User Community for Geospatial Authorities Working Group on Map Automation and Generalization. Currently, he leads the Dutch initiative on tactile mapping. Vincent likes cooking (not cleaning), plays piano and synthesizer, and can spend hours reharmonizing music (with different levels of success).

Jakub Wabiński is an assistant professor at the Institute of Geospatial Engineering and Geodesy, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland, and is co-chair of the ICA Working Group on Inclusive Cartography. He received a BSc degree from the Maritime University of Szczecin in 2015 and an MSc from the Military University of Technology in Warsaw in 2017. He worked as a postgraduate researcher at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland (2017) and a courtesy research assistant at the University of Oregon in the United States (2020). As part of his doctorate, he has been working on the issue of tactile map design and the automation of tactile map production. He is also interested in novel cartographic presentation methods. A board game enthusiast and a wanderer, he enjoys spending time in nature.