Jobs of the Future @AMAIS – inclusive design program
Technology plays an important role in everyone’s lives, and for people with disabilities it’s a way to achieve an independent life. Fortunately, technology has been lately in a continuous process of adapting to the needs of as many types of people as possible. As a result, it is becoming more and more inclusive.
This was the theme of the Erasmus+ project: Jobs of the Future – inclusive design program, where 12 young people from Romania, France, Cyprus, Italy and Latvia learned about inclusive design and how we can use the concept of tech for all to create a more inclusive world.
The activities of the program took place in Bucharest – Romania and were organized and hosted by the Association of Alternative Methods of Social Integration (AMAIS). AMAIS creates an equitable society for people with temporary, contextual or permanent disabilities by applying the principles of inclusive design in: architecture, technology, social projects.
The objectives of the three days of activity was to increase the participants’ empathy and familiarize them with new perspectives regarding the obstacles that people with visual disabilities face in their daily life in the city. The final challenge was for them to propose technology-based solutions to solve the identified problems.
On the first day, participants learned about the concept of inclusive design and its importance, but also interacted with the blind people in the community. They also did a mobility exercise using a cane on the streets of Bucharest where they discovered the differences between a classic cane and a smart cane and how assistive technology can take the mobility of blind people to the next level.
On the second day, participants learned directly from the blind how they use assistive technology in their daily activities and how the accessibility of many other technology-based products would remove the barriers towards social inclusion of people with disabilities. The highlight of the day was the visit to the Văcărești Natural Park, a space unique in Europe, the largest nature reservation in Bucharest, located in the middle of the city. The young people explored the park both from the perspective of a typical person and from the one of a blind person. At the end of the day they received the challenge to find a hardware or software solution to a problem they faced as blind people.
Among the concepts there were applications with integrated audio guides that can be activated in tourist areas, white canes that can make the difference between environments and types of obstacles, navigation applications for people with disabilities that alert the user when approaching obstacles or potential dangerous areas.
It was an international experience from which we all had something to learn and, most importantly, we left with new questions about what inclusion means and how we can use technology to create sustainable changes in the future.
Being inclusive is #AMAISing.