IN-CLASS WEEK TWO: PRESENT TO THE CLASS (50pts):
a) What was your biggest concern for accessibility on campus? (25pts)
b) Identify your best innovative idea and summarize how it will work to address
your biggest concern. (25pts)
COMPLETE BEFORE THE WEEK THREE CLASS FOR FULL CREDIT (100pts) :
Answers with no details will receive no credit!!
1) What were your group's top 3 areas of concern for mobility on campus? For each,
make sure to note the actual physical location, the nature of the concern and the parties
that you presume will be affected.(10pts)
2) Identify your number one problem and in a couple of sentences, how your innovation
will help solve that problem. (20pts)
3) Attach a picture/drawing/diagram/blueprint of your best solution with any written
notes needed so that anyone can understand how it works. (20pts)
4) What constraints would affect the implementation of your group's best idea? (10pts)
5) Describe and detail 2 other innovative solutions your group came up with and what
concern(s) they addressed. (10pts)
6) How did your group's brainstorming work out? Was it successful? If not, why not?
If you could improve the process what would you do?(10pts)
7) What lessons did your group learn about innovation through the experience of using
Multiple Perspectives (centered on mobility issues). (10pts)
8) What would the advantages be of having someone with mobility issues giving input
into the layout of physical spaces like buildings, campuses and cities? (10pts)
A. What was your biggest concern for accessibility on campus?
1.
Main Concern: Lack of accessibility for people who have trouble getting around
campus
1.1.
Many hilly areas and not many ramps
1.2.
Distance between the buildings can be inconvenient
1.3.
The walk to get to elevators can be inconvenient and out of the way
B. Identify your best innovative idea and summarize how it will work to address your biggest
concern.
1.
The main idea we had to deal with the lack of accessibility would be to
start utilizing the tour carts that are scattered around campus to start
transporting students that have a long walk to get to where they need to
be. We had the idea to create a signup sheet online that would dictate
where the driver would need to be to transport the students. It would not
only create more on-campus jobs, but also create better transportation
options for people.
1. The overall verticality of the campus, like in front of the Engineering building, which has
four long sets of fairly steep steps which would be difficult for people who have trouble
climbing steps to make their way up.
2. The main problem that we identified on campus was the lack of mobility for people that
struggle with that and that many areas of the campus are not easily accessible if you do
struggle with that. The main idea we had to deal with the lack of accessibility would be to
start utilizing the tour carts that are scattered around campus to start transporting
students that have a long walk to get to where they need to be. We had the idea to
create a signup sheet online that would dictate where the driver would need to be to
transport the students. It would not only create more on-campus jobs, but also create
better transportation options for people.
3.
4. Some of the constraints that would affect the implementation of our idea would be that it
takes a lot of resources to make a website and we would need to prove to the campus
that our idea would be profitable/provide a service to the campus. Also, there is the fact
that the tourcarts are currently used for tours so there could be complications of
implementing these carts for transportation. More would possibly have to be purchased
and once again cost could be a problem.
5. Another innovative solution that our group came up with was implementing a better
parking system into where the buildings are located. Currently, parking is available close
enough to some of the buildings but it is very limited so only a small handful of people
can actually access the spots. Also, there are usually few disabled parking spots so we
talked about expanding our parking lots or leasing out some of the nearby parking to
have more accessible parking. We also discussed getting the walkable moving
sidewalks that are in airports across campus because of how hilly some of the areas are.
It would be quite difficult to get up some of these hills so we thought getting moving
sidewalks would help movement for everyone across the board.
6. Our brainstorming session was successful, I don’t feel I contributed that much because I
have not been on campus long, but we all contributed in meaningful ways and found a
good solution.
7. First of all, we discovered that multiple viewpoints are critical for discovering innovative
solutions. We have students who live on campus and students who commute; as a
result, everyone's mobility challenges are unique. However, we discovered that
incorporating different perspectives is critical for identifying opportunities for
improvement. Second, we learned that meaningful innovation involves a specific group
of users. The issue we worked on focused on people experiencing mobility issues on
campus; therefore, it is critical to actively listen to those who are directly affected. Finally,
we learned that collaboration across different fields is critical to successful innovation.
We recommended using the golf cart to improve campus mobility, but we also suggested
creating a booking app for students interested in becoming drivers. This allows us to
approach the problem from a variety of perspectives.
8. Incorporating input from people with mobility issues into the layout of physical spaces
such as buildings, campuses, and cities provides numerous benefits. For example, the
input ensures that design decisions take into consideration the needs and experiences
of a diverse range of users, encouraging user-centered design. Also, people with
mobility issues have direct experience with barriers and challenges, which allows them
to identify obstacles that others may miss. Moreover, their feedback offers helpful ideas
for practical solutions for improving accessibility, such as installing ramps, elevators, and
optimizing space layouts for better mobility.