Hello Bloggers and Design Thinkers,
Update on the artist blog here. I have been hard at work these past couples of years at achieving my MFA in Design Thinking. This degree with Radford University has been a tremendous amount of work, but it is paying off in the long run. I am nearing the finish line for graduation as I am done with all of my course work for spring 2020. All that I have left to finish is my Thesis. I'm currently working on my Thesis for Design Thinking which is human-centred Design focused on, "Improving Mobile Applications for Individuals with Limited Mobility Access in the U.S." Exciting right? To some, this task may sound exciting for others, not so much. But for me, this is very important. For you to understand why this topic is so important, I have to give you some understanding. In my senior year at MTSU, right in the middle of my Senior Art show and even a little further on, I required quite a bit of surgery. These surgeries not only helped inspire my artwork and drive my determination for finishing school, but they also hindered my mobility of getting around. I was using a wheelchair to get around campus and let's say that even the flattest college campus in all of Tennessee was very rough to navigate. If I had access to some helpful phone applications that could have told me, "Hey! there is not going to be any accessible parking available in those areas!" or "Hey you're not gonna find a bathroom there!", Or something as simple as "That build is NOT accessible with a wheelchair!" that would have made my life so much simpler. And that was only around 2011-2012. Fast forward now to 2020, and the world is still having issues with accessibility. When I first started the research for my thesis, I found a couple of decent mobile applications that were solid recommendations and were well versed not only in the U.S. but also in other countries. So I started my research with the following, WheelMate, Wheel-map, and AccessEarth. With these three mobile applications under my belt, I figured I had a great start for my Walk-a-mile testing I was getting a Go-pro and was ready to start my Walk-A-Mile.... and 3...2...1. Enter COVID-19.
Months of waiting... And with research put off, changes in weather, the country, bus systems, health systems, ways of life and proper ways of approaching things, there had to be some major changes to my research. Needless to say, I was going to have to change how to tackle this Walk-a-mile, so I went back to the drawing board. With summer approaching I figured this was a good time to re-evaluate how to record and approach this from a safer angle. I am going to film a walk-a-mile from the perspective of a handicap individual in a wheelchair navigating the public transportation system of both rural and metropolitan areas - Basic tasks both car parking, shopping, and bus transits, etc. Originally, I had decided to do Washington D.C. but with COVID, it just didn't seem safe to be in a densely populated area, especially as someone with such a weak immune system. So I decided to scale down the city and pick Charlottesville VA, like the Metro, and Ruckersville, VA as the Rural. Seeing as the two cities are closer to each other, it will make the filing and travel situation much easier. But planning this was still difficult because of COVID and waiting for the public rural bus transportation to open up in a fuller capacity.
It wasn't until about May of 2020 that Google released an article and a surprise update to their navigation map system. I was pleased to find that they decided to finally update their navigational Map service, to finally include an accessibility feature. Google is the largest provided for mobile navigation around the world and has the largest access to data for businesses and roads. So this was exciting. However, the integration for the accessibility was so tiny. I was not impressed. I was also concerned that it was not automatic, and that you had to turn on the feature. I feel like if they were going to make the wheelchair icon so greyed out, small and so well integrated then they should have just made it apart of their regular update. Regardless, I am still hoping that more people - disabled or not - will turn on this feature, use it, and help to input more data as this would help millions of people around the world. If there were ever a company that could help to improve accessibility worldwide it would be Google.
So that finally brings us back to my walk-a-mile? When is this happening? So as August is coming to an end and September is about to begin I am getting ready to start my Walk-a-mile. I have my Go-Pro all my memory cards and batteries, cameras and straps, my wheelchair cleaned and car ready. I've got my mask, and gloves, hand-sanitizer, and general plan for what I am going to do. Am I nervous? You bet! Am I excited? Even more so! I am so excited about the data that I will be able to gather from the experience, and I hope that I will be able to help bring more precise information about how each of the mobile applications could improve their technology, as well as how rural communities compare to Metro areas as far as accessibility and awareness within the mobile applications. This research data and user-level experience that not only I will be gathering but also a review from others in my Online System Usability Survey and later Design Workshop with Disabled Students will add to the overall body of knowledge. I'm so excited for this journey to begin and to take you all along with me. I will be sure to share the link to the video once it is finished and updated to my Youtube channel. Stay tuned for an update.Stay Inspired!
Kallie
