2008 Woodie Awards
Disabled access maps in works
Jad Sleiman
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: News
For most students, a paper print-out of a map of the campus is enough to make it to class. But for students who use wheelchairs, these same maps pose a mystifying set of obstacles.
The central problem is that the campus maps don't say which pathways between buildings are best for students who use wheelchairs. For instance, some pathways may be too narrow or steep. Others have staircases that aren't shown on these maps.
Fortunately, emerging technologies, each coming from different corners of the university community, will help university students with disabilities find their way around the campus as early as fall 2008 by using interactive mapping technologies.
Without funds or backing from the university, Charlie Bowler of facilities planning and a consultant for Avatech, a company that creates and sells Auto Computer Aided Drafting systems, developed a working prototype of an interactive map.
Bowler's system uses official university mapping and allows users to choose start and end points. It then maps out a path that avoids obstacles such as stairs or steep inclines.
"We just saw the need for it," Bowler said. "My real job is to keep up the regular mapping, this was a side job."
Gay Gullickson, who uses a wheelchair and is the chairwoman of the President's Commission on Disability Issues, said the campus provides several challenges for people who use wheelchairs.
"One of the major difficulties is that the campus is not flat, and we can't do anything about that," Gullickson said. "It's not a steep hill unless you're pushing a wheelchair up, then it's pretty steep."
Bowler's map works on his office computer, but he says he still needs between $10,000 and $20,000 to "polish" the program - which would make it more user friendly - and put it on the Internet.
Gullickson, who serves as a liaison to the administration, said she was sure Bowler would receive the needed funding and hopes the map will be available to students this fall.
The central problem is that the campus maps don't say which pathways between buildings are best for students who use wheelchairs. For instance, some pathways may be too narrow or steep. Others have staircases that aren't shown on these maps.
Fortunately, emerging technologies, each coming from different corners of the university community, will help university students with disabilities find their way around the campus as early as fall 2008 by using interactive mapping technologies.
Without funds or backing from the university, Charlie Bowler of facilities planning and a consultant for Avatech, a company that creates and sells Auto Computer Aided Drafting systems, developed a working prototype of an interactive map.
Bowler's system uses official university mapping and allows users to choose start and end points. It then maps out a path that avoids obstacles such as stairs or steep inclines.
"We just saw the need for it," Bowler said. "My real job is to keep up the regular mapping, this was a side job."
Gay Gullickson, who uses a wheelchair and is the chairwoman of the President's Commission on Disability Issues, said the campus provides several challenges for people who use wheelchairs.
"One of the major difficulties is that the campus is not flat, and we can't do anything about that," Gullickson said. "It's not a steep hill unless you're pushing a wheelchair up, then it's pretty steep."
Bowler's map works on his office computer, but he says he still needs between $10,000 and $20,000 to "polish" the program - which would make it more user friendly - and put it on the Internet.
Gullickson, who serves as a liaison to the administration, said she was sure Bowler would receive the needed funding and hopes the map will be available to students this fall.
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