This project will bring together the static (e.g., sidewalk condition, street networks, characteristics of land use) and dynamic (e.g., traffic volumes, weather, and light quality) characteristics of the environment that are monitored close to real-time into one decision support system for route planning. The evidence-based app will enhance community mobility by providing up-to-date information about the critical environmental attributes that could affect community mobility and allowing the user to provide information about their own abilities and personal preferences to determine a route that optimizes those preferences. Having such a tool can support successful aging through maintaining community mobility even as functional limitations result in new and pervasive environmental barriers. The long-term goal is to refine and expand the app to provide broader applicability to a wider range of users.
CIDI advocates for usability, inclusivity, and accessibility for all. Our center collaborates with colleagues, friends, designers, and innovators to expand the awareness around the importance of incorporating accessibility into design. Our goal is to impart the importance and value of a disability, because accessibility affects all aspects of our lives. Our center is excited and prepared to continue to share knowledge and ideas on the next steps in accessibility and inclusion.
The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) was created by a merger of the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) and AMAC Accessibility.
CATEA grew out of collaborations in the late 1970s between Georgia Tech Industrial Design students and local disability groups. Their efforts led to the establishment of CATEA in 1980 by the Board of Regents. For more than 20 years, CATEA provided services for Georgia's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, established the statewide TechKnowledge information clearinghouse on assistive technology, hosted various national resource centers on assistive technology for the workplace, provided accessibility audits for public facilities and information technology to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and produced computer skill and adult education programs. By the early 2000s, CATEA had transformed from a service-oriented center into a full-fledged research center.
AMAC Accessibility started in 2005 as the Alternative Media Access Center to help post-secondary institutions provide complete, timely, and efficient accommodations to print-disabled students. This began with e-text production, and by 2009 had expanded into braille, captioning, and audio description. By 2010, AMAC transitioned to the Georgia Institute of Technology, where it became a research and service center of Georgia Tech's College of Design in 2013 known as AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Center. In 2017, as a leader in content engineering designed to increase accessibility globally in the post-secondary industry, it simplified its name to AMAC Accessibility.
