disability justice
for urban planners
and designers
Capstone in Interaction Design and Disability Studies, 2022
This project began in Winter 2022, as the start of my capstone project in Disability Studies with an advisor, Anat Caspi. We began our research with the acknowledgment of most cities, including Seattle, as inaccessible to people with disabilities. Our research progressed and narrowed in on disability justice as a teaching tool for professionals as a literature review revealed an overall lack of educational materials for creating accessible spaces. While there is some literature and guidance on this, it is inconsistent and fails to address all disabilities nor incorporate elements of disability justice and pride. Our goal was to promote radical accessibility through the use of disability justice principles in the planning and design process for community spaces.
In the Spring of 2022, this project expanded to include James Pierce as an advisor for my capstone in Interaction Design. From this point on, the focus shifted towards producing a cohesive, and accessible design for this concept. The result is a brightly colored card deck featuring one card for each of the ten principles of disability justice, in addition to five more cards that both contextualize the space and provide guidance on using the cards.
Now, in the Summer of 2022, Anat and I continue our work together to test the toolkit we produced among transportation planners and make revisions where necessary. Our current plans involve a participatory workshop with small focus groups where we can gain specific insight and guidance from potential users.
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