OS-CONNECT Advisory Board Meeting | September 10, 2026

Washington’s first statewide pedestrian infrastructure baseline is complete. The next challenge is keeping it accurate as sidewalks, crossings, curb ramps, transit connections, and communities change. This recording captures the September 10, 2026 OS-CONNECT Advisory Board working session. Participants from cities, counties, transit and mobility organizations, state and federal agencies, community organizations, and the University of Washington helped us examine and build a practical and sustainable approach to pedestrian-data stewardship. The session covers: • What OS-CONNECT is and how to access the statewide dataset • How the baseline was created from aerial imagery using AI-assisted extraction and human review • Why local knowledge remains essential as infrastructure changes • Three pathways for contributing updates: reporting mapped problems, guided collection and review, and contributing local edits or datasets • Richland’s use of the OS-CONNECT Viewer to report recent infrastructure changes • Goldendale’s use of OS-CONNECT for ADA transition planning, safety planning, transit-access analysis, and field collection • How OS-CONNECT can identify gaps in access to schools, healthcare, food, parks, transit, and other essential destinations • Challenges involving staff capacity, project closeout, GIS backlogs, departmental handoffs, and data ownership • The training, technical assistance, validation support, and project-based help organizations said they would use • Potential pilots connected to ADA transition plans, SS4A and local road-safety plans, comprehensive plans, Safe Routes to School, transit mobility hubs, trails, and sidewalk projects OS-CONNECT is the OpenSidewalks Consistent Network for Accessible Navigation and Equitable Connectivity through Transit. It provides standardized, connected pedestrian-network data that can support accessible routing, ADA transition planning, safety analysis, transit access, infrastructure prioritization, and grant development. This work is led by the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Gaussian Solutions is the primary technical partner producing and delivering the statewide OS-CONNECT data. The project is developed in partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation and supported through a Washington State legislative proviso. We are grateful to the municipal, county, transit, regional, state, federal, community, and disability representatives who contributed their experience to this working session. We also thank the City of Richland and the City of Goldendale and its regional partners for providing concrete examples of local review and data collection. Topics in this recording: 0:00 Pre-meeting and attendee arrival 3:00 Welcome and purpose 7:42 What OS-CONNECT is and the statewide dataset 9:42 AI-assisted extraction, human review, and local knowledge 21:17 Three pathways for contributing updates 26:06 Richland reports recent infrastructure changes 27:57 Goldendale’s ADA, safety, transit, and field-collection work 37:56 Maintenance challenges, handoffs, capacity, and data ownership 49:52 Identifying access gaps around essential destinations 56:43 Training, technical assistance, and supported pilots 1:03:18 Accessing and using OS-CONNECT data 1:15:43 Potential projects and pilot opportunities 1:17:38 ADA planning, prioritization, and legal-risk discussion 1:21:57 Next steps and closing Explore the OS-CONNECT Viewer: https://osconnect-viewer.tdei.us/ Provide stewardship input: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA... Learn more about OS-CONNECT and the Taskar Center: https://sidewalk.washington.edu/ Access slides, meeting materials, and additional resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folder... Subscribe to the Taskar Center’s YouTube channel to stay current on OS-CONNECT demonstrations and the short training modules requested by advisory board participants. #OSCONNECT #OpenSidewalks #TaskarCenter #TDEI #AccessibleTransportation #PedestrianInfrastructure #PedestrianData #MobilityData #TransportationData #ActiveTransportation #ADAAccessibility #ADATransitionPlanning #SafeRoutesToSchool #TransitAccess #RoadSafety #Accessibility #InclusiveMobility #WashingtonState #WSDOT