Design for Accessibility
- Group size: Individual
- Released: Monday, October 7
- Due: Wednesday, October 16 by 11:55 PM to Moodle
Overview
Watch this video about a sidewalk accessibility project.
For 24 hours, walk around town/campus only using handicap accessible pathways. No stairs inside (not even tiny steps). No hopping onto curves outside. Use only paved paths and sidewalks.
Create an annotated map (sketching, or using any digital tools you like) with the following information:
- At least 2-3 accessible “options.” This can be an entrance to a building, good crosswalk location, powered doors, etc.
- At least 2-3 problematic areas that you found. For example, you can’t enter the front of Chambers because of steps. For each problem, create a marker with an appropriate symbol (include an image and a text description).
Your map needs to include at least 5 buildings. For example, you may choose to focus on the academic side of campus and include Chambers, Sloan, Watson, Dana, and Wall. Or you may choose to focus your map on the residential side of campus. You may choose to include a map of all of campus, but keep in mind the busyness of the existing campus map and how your annotations may work with or against the existing marks on the map.
Deliverables
- As always: Your reflections as a Medium blog post. You do not need a demo video. Include your annotated map as well as reflections on the accessible and inaccessible examples you found (including images of the problematic examples). Be sure to reflect on the differences in the accessible and inaccessible paths.
- This blog post will be different from the other blog posts you have written.
- I still expect photographic evidence, explanatory sketches, and a genuine reflection of the experience (both positive, negative, and critical).
- Optional: if this experience causes you to notice other inaccessible examples on campus, you are welcome to include those in this reflective blog post. This is optional – I am grading your reflection of the physical accessibility challenge.
Grading
Grading will be based on a variation of the design rubric.