Last summer I [Mike Dorn] had the pleasure of working with a group of Philadelphia high school students calling themselves Project Beta. They were participating in an afterschool enrichment program calls bITS, funded by the National Science Foundation and hosted by Temple University's Information Technology and Society Research Group. While exploring high end Web 2.0 applications, students were challenged to derive insights from the fields of science, technology and mathematics to solve problems that were familiar to them in their everyday lives. Carol Marfisi and I provided the topical introduction to the themes that students would be exploring during the week-long model, "Towards Enabling Spaces?" Project Beta's explorations of the Temple University campus from the perspective of a person using a wheelchair produced the hilarious film entitled "Access of Admissions," since posted to YouTube and Temple University's site on CampusVid.
I am so impressed by the work of Geography and Urban Studies graduate student Langston Clement and the entire Project Beta team.
I hope you enjoy it, and are inspired to undertake similar explorations of your university campus! Feel free to contact us through the email link to the left, and we will put you in touch with the right people. Of course, you won't be able to duplicate that irresistable Philly soul sound!
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6 comments:
What a great film! These students clearly made their point regarding access...even more effectively than the recent movie "Music Within."
Cool.
Mighty fine! And the music definitely says Philadelphia. You can almost smell the cheesesteaks...
Great video - thanks for sharing it. The accessible door w/ the tight turning space to the next accessible door was a particularly good "what were they thinking!"
Er, was the lack of captions for the voiced dialog meant to be intentional? (tongue-in-cheek)
I think perhaps filming the passage at the eye-level of a wheelchair user would have been even more effective (some of it seemed to be -- hard to tell).
Some of our uni buildings were even older; talk about accessibility issues!
Thanks for all of your critical comments. For whatever the video's artistic merits, it has proved effective as a vehicle for consciousness-raising. John Bennett, Director of Temple University's Office of Disability Resources and Services told me this morning that he has seen this video on YouTube. He also divulged that about two weeks ago folks with Facilities told him that they had placed an order for new signage outside Conwell Hall.
Congratulations again to Langston Clement and Project Beta! Mike
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