Forward

Forward is a website that gives information on women's reproductive healthcare access across the country. Features in the website include a clinic locator, transportation guide, resources, and more.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration for our project came after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade case. This went into effect immediately by some states and became a problem for women accessing reproductive healthcare facilities. We decided to do research and find a solution to help inform users about the latest updates on abortion in their state. We also wanted users to have different types of resources and options on their decision.

What it does

Forward is a web application that helps individuals access abortion clinics, planned parenthood offices, mental health facilities, and adoption clinics. It has information about the route, distance metrics, and estimated time to travel as well as directions, up-to-date abortion laws, and funding information for each state.

How we built it

Development We started with looking for good, reliable and recent sources of data. Given the dynamic and sensitive nature of the project, we wanted to be sure that we would present the most authentic source of information to our users. Datasets were finally obtained by scraping (using python scripting) needed information from credible websites. Once we had the data, we used ArcGIS Pro to build layers (using several geoprocessing tools) and publish a feature layer on ArcGIS online. Data visualization and carthography were done in ArcGIS Online. Feature layers were used in building web maps and web apps which were then consumed by the web application using JavaScript API for ArcGIS online.

To find the nearest facility to the user's address, we used the Closest Facility service and routing services. Popups were built to present a user-friendly and intuitive information about the facility and route.

Website We used both custom CSS as well as the Bootstrap library, HTML, and JS. To generate the live US focused newsfeed we used an API from the GDELT project. The GDELT monitors the world's broadcast, print, and web news. We queried data on abortion related topics local to the United States and embedded the result into our website.

Challenges we ran into

We chose a controversial topic and wanted to make sure we included both sides on our project. We had a limited amount of data from esri and used what we were able to find.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our team was able to create a functional website in the short amount of time we had and with the limited datasets we found. We believe that this site can be impactful and make a difference for women seeking reproductive healthcare especially in states that have restricted abortion.

What we learned

We learned how to use Photoshop and graphically represent our site. ArcGIS has many types of applications and had to figure out a way to to incorporate those apps to have a user-based website.

What's next for Forward

  • User interface (UI) enhancements and changes will be made to improve user experience (UX);
  • Analysis of travel time from any location in the U.S. to clinics, housing options and ride share options with privacy and security considerations;
  • And, a chat feature for users to share their experiences and interact with each other.

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