In 2020, there were 61 million adults in the United States with a disability, accounting for a little under a fifth of the population (Disability impacts all of us infographic, 2020). An increase of awareness and advocacy has led to more accessibility measures for people with disabilities through laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act and extends to more availability of allergen information, as well as gender and religious related accommodations. Our project focuses on bringing this accommodation of people with accessibility needs to Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), where students work together in teams on a project to solve a real-world problem that lies in the intersection of science and society. The majority of students travel abroad for this project, however, there is very little information posted on the state of accessibility and availability of accommodations for most project sites. We met with subject-matter experts, students, Project Center Directors, the Global Experience Office (GEO), and the Office of Accessibility (OAS) to gain more knowledge on how we can best support students with accessibility concerns. After combining this interview data with a comprehensive survey sent out to WPI students, we found that 28% of students felt that there was a lack of information conveyed in eProjects. Our recommendation is that GEO encourages the implementation of IQP projects focused on understanding the state of accessibility in the country they are studying in, as we did in Iceland. This will allow project center directors to be able to post accurate information on eProjects for the benefit of future students with a need for accommodations.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Tervay, Jack
• Duran, Miguel
• Sacheti, Arnav
• Palayoor, Adina

Subject

• Well-Being
• Culture
• Infrastructure
• Health
• Inclusion

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-101222-182159
• 79036

Keyword

• Disabilities
• eProjects
• Accommodations
• Accessibility in Iceland
• Accessibility

Advisor

• Stanlick, Sarah Eliza
• Solomon, Jeffrey S.

Year

• 2022

Center

• Reykjavik, Iceland Project Center - IQP

Sponsor

• Dr. Aaron Sakulich

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 10 - Reducing Inequality
• 15 - Life On Land

Date created

• 2022-10-12

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Source

• E-project-101222-182159

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2022-12-21