This innovative idea of an accessibility application was presented at the Hacking Health Windsor-Detroit 2016 Hackathon by two paediatric clinicians from the John McGivney Children's Centre (JMCC), a paediatric rehabilitation facility. The goal of Hacking Health is to find innovative solutions to front-line healthcare problems by bringing together participants involved in software or hardware development with health care specialists. At the end of the hackathon, the project received two awards: 2016 BEST TEAM FROM CANADA and 2016 OVERALL JUDGES' FAVOURITE
The AccessLocator product will address a lack of specific accessibility information of locations, for individuals with social/cognitive, vision, hearing, communication and physical disabilities. Our unique web and mobile based system will provide a multi-faceted review of a facility's accessibility by using a comprehensive checklist that looks beyond minimum accessibility standards unlike other available applications which provide limited or unclear information. The outstanding feature of the application is the capability to develop a User Profile that filters accessibility criteria specific to an individual's needs and truly customizes their search.
Our team is headed by Ontario Association of Children’s Rehabilitation Services (OACRS) and John McGivney Children Centre. Our amazing team includes
Currently our developers are working on the prototype and our UX/UI designers in collaboration with the disability experts and end-users are working on refining the requirements for both the application and the interface.
Over the next three years, our project will be initially introduced to 21 treatment centres representing over 80,000 children and youth with disabilities across Ontario and to various advocacy groups in Canada and the United States. This application will be available to all people with accessibility needs worldwide regardless of age. Our goal is to raise accessibility awareness around the world.
The promise of AccessLocator is that it can become a TripAdvisor for families with accessibility challenges , providing – for example - a more complete picture of a restaurant or hotel's accessibility from the perspective of the people who know what matters. Irek Kusmierczyk, PhD - Director of Partnerships at WEtech Alliance
