Towards maps for everyone

The Towards Maps for Everyone workshop forms part of the ICC 2025 pre-conference workshops, and will be held on 17 August at the Vancouver Convention Centre from 15:45-19:45 local time.

People have diverse needs, and in many ways, all needs can be considered special. Cartographers and mapmakers are humans, and the maps they design often reflect subjective preferences that may not “fit” the target audience’s requirements. Although cartography is grounded in well-established conventions and rules, how well do these truly for the cognitive capabilities of map readers? Are social, cultural, and educational backgrounds adequately considered in the mapmaking process?

This joint workshop is co-organized by the Inclusive Cartography working group, Commission on Cartography and Children, Commission on User Experience, Commission on Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization and GreenInfo Network. The workshop aims to explore different perspectives on the issues of inclusiveness and user focus in cartography by bringing together not only mapmakers specialising in different aspects of cartography, but also other domain experts, such as special pedagogues, neurobiologists, sociologists, etc, to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.

The workshop will be divided into two main parts. First, we will host introductory lectures on how to effectively design maps tailored to people with varying cognitive capabilities as well as different social, cultural, and educational backgrounds. Later, participants will implement the theoretical knowledge during hands-on activities with the aim to draft general guidelines for designing maps that serve “everyone”.

We believe that this workshop will contribute to the ongoing efforts in inclusiveness and user-centred cartography, ensuring that — paraphrasing one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals — no one is left behind.

If you wish to join us online, then please register using this form.

You can view the full program here.