Team I10: Mapping the Journey to an Accessible McMaster
Team I10, MacChangers 2023-2024
Executive Summary
Group Members
Samuel O’Donoghue - iBEHS Level I (Faculty of Engineering)
Brooj Mishal - Neuroscience Level III (Faculty of Science)
Zoe Pan - iBEHS Level I (Faculty of Engineering)
Seth Xue - iBioMed Level I (Faculty of Engineering)
Sarp Yilmaz - Biochemistry Level III (Faculty of Health Sciences)
Mission Statement
Our team is passionate about making a meaningful impact in our community. We are a multi-disciplinary team with a shared vision to improve accessibility within McMaster. We aim to learn, embrace new perspectives, and drive innovative solutions.
Description
Team I10 consists of 5 McMaster Undergraduate students from different disciplines coming together to create a solution to McMaster's lack of accessibility, particularly for students living with physical and sensory disabilities. As part of the built environment and infrastructure section of the MacChangers organization this year, we created a solution to address how we might make McMaster's campus more accessible given today's technological and industrial advances.
Upon discussing and working with MSU's Maccess, McMaster SAS, and faculty members from McMaster Health Sciences, we have developed an innovative campus-specific app that provides extensive detailed information about the campus environment and infrastructure.
The "Maccessible" app is an innovative and customizable tool for all students to use and partake in developing improvements and updates to address the community's needs in real time. Features include crowd capacity monitoring, creating the most accessible routes for getting around campus according to the user's condition and disabilities, and informative reports on the interior aspects of every building on McMaster's campus.
Our How Might We Question
"How might we assist McMaster University in creating an inclusive environment that further enhances learning and navigation for students with physical and sensory disabilities?"
Human Centred Design
Our Research Findings
SDG Alignment
Case Studies and Findings
Revised Questions After Speaking to the Community
Our Timeline
Original How Might We Question
How might we assist McMaster University in creating an inclusive built environment that enhances learning and navigation for students with mental, physical, and invisible disabilities?
Brainstorming
This original question was too broad and focused on many different types of disabilities. We wanted to decide what specific demographic of disabilities to target based on the McMaster student population using reports and discussions through MSU's Maccess service. The Maccess community gave us a much better idea of the actual disabled student population and their needs on campus while navigating life as a McMaster community member.
Our Revised How Might We Question
How might we assist McMaster University in creating an inclusive environment that further enhances learning and navigation for students with physical and sensory disabilities?
First Community Event Feedback + Next Steps
Physical Solution Indicators: Must consider most common disabilities within the student population
Communicative Solution Indicators: Must be able to accommodate different languages and forms of communication (e.g. braille/morse code, CC/Sign Language)
Financial Solution Indicators: Must be affordable for all students from different SES backgrounds
Digital Solution Indicators: Must be a form of accessible technology for everyone with different abilities to access
Final Community Event Feedback
The logistics for carrying out our app need to be more realistic and in-line with what McMaster has already done. This is why we wanted to study the McMaster Safety App to address the feedback from the community members before the final showcase!
Measuring Success
How will we as a team measure the success of our solution if it were to be implemented?
- Campus-wide surveys to make the app accessible. Surveys will be available to all app users, including students, staff, and faculty. They can add their input on how well the app works for the McMaster community and what should/needs to be changed to create a more accessible campus!
- Collaborate with McMaster’s Safety App creators to launch a pilot project. The McMaster Safety app continues to be a successful and valuable tool for users all across campus. The app developers and creators/founders of McMaster's Safety App can allow for a successful pilot project for the "Maccessible" app to be functional enough for users to access it, like the Safety app easily.
- Student App Feedback will be provided on a rolling basis for relevant app updates. Students can inform the app of any changes or discrepancies between real-time environmental properties of the campus buildings and landscape while also commenting on the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall app's functioning.
Our Solution Ideas
Equitable and Inclusive Considerations
Final Solution
Final Showcase Poster
Our Experience with MacChangers
"Despite many setbacks, obstacles, and tense team dynamics, this experience was unforgettable. I learned much about working with others and creating solutions to improve the world! I think this project and the overall program made me a more creative, innovative, and resilient individual, and I am looking forward to applying these skills in my future endeavours" - Brooj Mishal
