Inspiration
Around the world, nearly 40% of physical entities are inaccessible to those with disabilities -- this greatly threatens their lifestyle and independency. Hence, I wanted to create an application that would empower students with disabilities and assist them in their day-to-day life - this is where MapAbility was born.
Connection to Theme
MapAbility is in close alignment to ULHacks’ theme. Currently, students with disabilities, like many other students, receive virtual instruction - this greatly minimizes the need for locations to be accessible to them as they don't have to travel to any locations besides their homes. However, when students return to in-person school, many more accessibility concerns are raised - for example, sidewalks to their bus stop must be accessible, the bus must be accessible, and the school (and classrooms) must be accessible. This means that during this upcoming school year, the learning of students with disabilities is greatly threatened - hence, there needs to be a solution addressing this concern.
With MapAbility, students and their parents are able to report the accessibility of these locations, and before students with disabilities actually return to school, these issues can be resolved. Thus, it's clear - MapAbility, in allowing parents and students to report inaccessible locations, eases and aids students with disabilities in returning to in-person school and empowers their learning.
Features + What MapAbility Does
MapAbility is a web application fostering dialogue and action on inaccessible locations, thus promoting social change and empowering students w/ disabilities. In other words, it allows people to report and discuss inaccessible locations, upon which local authorities can take action and resolve the inaccessibility. This greatly assist those with disabilities as the accessibility issues that inhibit their independence and lifestyle are now being preemptively resolved through MapAbility.
How We Built It
MapAbility was built with a variety of different programming languages including but not limited to, HTML, CSS, CSS3, Java, and JavaScript. We also utilized other programming tools including Notepad++ and Atom. MapAbility also utilizes various APIs (for example, a geolocation API to allow for the location-based accessibility system).
Challenges Encountered
One of the biggest challenges we ran into was ensuring the proper implementation of a location-based service -- using a geolocation API, MapAbility was able to address this issue. In addition, we wanted to find a way to allow for people to report the accessibility of roads and sidewalks, which students with disabilities often use. Our initial approach didn't allow for this but we soon added a new feature (seen in the video) which allows for this!
What's Next for MapAbility
MapAbility would like to continue to grow its initiative - we'd like to add additional features (for example, expanding beyond simply physical accessibility to digital accessibility). Hence, receiving award recognition at ULHacks would provide us with the early traction that we need to continue to grow our venture!
Thank you for taking the time to read our submission!
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