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Add substance to usability/accessibility statement
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Address the following feedback in Maps4HTML#17:

> > The complexity of choices and the wide variety of technologies required to create Web maps results in maps of highly variable usability and accessibility.
>
> I don't really follow this. Usability and accessibility are used but without substance.
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@Malvoz
Malvoz committed Aug 26, 2020
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Expand Up @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ The goal of this proposal is to bridge the gap between the two communities in a
<h3 id="the-problem">The Problem</h3>


Web maps today are created using a wide range of technology stacks on both the client and server, some standard, some open, and some proprietary. The complexity of choices and the wide variety of technologies required to create Web maps results in maps of highly variable usability and accessibility. This has in turn led to the creation of centralized mapping services, that may or may not be implemented using Web technology; in some cases, mapping services which work well on desktop Web browsers mostly bypass the mobile Web through creation of mobile platform mapping apps, where the ‘rules of the Web platform’ (such as device permissions) do not apply. Some centralized mapping services, both on the Web but especially on mobile technology platforms, are constructed for the purpose of tracking the user’s location and their locations of (search) interest, and using that private location information to market and re-sell highly targeted advertising.
Web maps today are created using a wide range of technology stacks on both the client and server, some standard, some open, and some proprietary. The complexity of choices and the wide variety of technologies required to create Web maps results in <a href="https://github.com/Malvoz/web-maps-wcag-evaluation/blob/master/README.md">maps of highly variable usability and accessibility</a>. This has in turn led to the creation of centralized mapping services, that may or may not be implemented using Web technology; in some cases, mapping services which work well on desktop Web browsers mostly bypass the mobile Web through creation of mobile platform mapping apps, where the ‘rules of the Web platform’ (such as device permissions) do not apply. Some centralized mapping services, both on the Web but especially on mobile technology platforms, are constructed for the purpose of tracking the user’s location and their locations of (search) interest, and using that private location information to market and re-sell highly targeted advertising.

The problem to be solved, therefore, is to reduce the threshold complexity of creating accessible, usable and privacy-preserving Web maps, and to enable full use of Web platform standards such as HTML, URL, SVG, CSS and JavaScript in map creation, styling, presentation and interaction.

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@prushforth
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It's really great that my bald unsupported statement has turned out to in fact be true, thanks to your analysis. The upcoming workshop will provide more documentation of this, I think, and not only coming from you and Nic.

In thinking about the subsequent statement: "This has in turn led to the creation of centralized mapping services"... it occurs to me that what I was thinking when I wrote that was that OGC standardization, despite decades of effort, has had little/less effect on the rise of centralized mapping than what I believe we might have been aiming for. By providing a Web standard for maps and layers, we might not avoid centralized services altogether, but we might create a healthier ecosystem by lowering the barriers to map creation and use (because performance of non-centralized services would be better). I wrote this document early in the year when Alex Russell was basically saying the mobile Web is dead or non-existent, and that was the windmill I was tilting at then. However, the document is already too long (according to Simon IIRC, which I accept the truth of) so it's probably better left to blogging / bloggers to talk about.

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