Beyond the "Pretty Map": Building Accessible, High-Performance GIS for the Public Sector

The Hook Most map-based web applications look great but fail the moment a user with a screen reader tries to navigate them. When you're building for government or healthcare, "looking good" isn't enough—it has to be functional, compliant, and fast. At Pragmatica , we’ve spent the last two decades refining a "Pragmatic" approach to complex data visualization. Here’s how we handle the "Triple Threat" of modern mapping: Spatial Data, Web Performance, and WCAG Compliance. 1. The Data Problem: GeoJSON vs. Performance Large spatial datasets are notorious for killing browser performance. If you’re loading 10MB of GeoJSON directly into the client, your mobile users are going to have a bad time. The Pragmatic Fix: We utilize Vector Tiles and Brotli compression to serve data efficiently. By simplifying geometries (reducing coordinate precision where it’s not mission-critical), we’ve seen load times drop by up to 60% without sacrificing the visual integrity of the map. 2. The Accessibility Gap: M