NC Clear Path wins Civic Camp Hackathon
In 2020, we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since its signing on July 26, 1990, the time we spend in physical and digital environments designed by other people has only increased.
Cities have made strides in creating equitable experiences for everyone by building curb cuts, ramps, and other physical infrastructure. However, steep hills, broken sidewalks, badly designed or missing curb cuts, out-of-service elevators, and poorly maintained paths still present challenges for people who use assistive technologies like wheelchairs, crutches, and canes. In America, 54.5 million people–or 1 in 6 Americans–require assistive devices or have trouble walking more than a quarter of a mile.
With the proliferation of smartphones and navigation applications, it is now possible to report, map, and plan around nearly anything. At the 2018 Civic Camp Hackathon, our team pitched NC Clear Path to help people with limited mobility more easily navigate cities by displaying different types of sidewalk obstructions. The features we hope to build include:
- Directions tailored to a particular person’s needs based on filters for different types of sidewalk obstacles
- Integration with 311-like systems that have APIs (SeeClickFix, for example) to include known sidewalk hazards and report issues that need to be fixed
- Crowd-sourced updates on sidewalk conditions so that neighbors can help one another know whether obstacles have been cleared
As we researched, we found several other initiatives with similar goals: Chi Safe Path in Chicago, Google’s wheelchair-accessible pilot; AccessMap in Seattle, which uses Open Sidewalks; and Project Sidewalk in Washington DC. These widespread efforts toward the same goal make it clear that this is a timely and necessary idea. We hope to integrate with and take inspiration from these projects.
Our team members come from different communities in North Carolina with areas of expertise including design, data science, web development, statewide transportation, and permitting data. We were honored to win first place at Civic Camp, and we look forward to continuing to work on this project as we gear up for All Things Open and Datapalooza.