Creating Access Individuals with Disabilities who are Experiencing Homelessness

The Gilroy Compassion Center is a homeless resource center and day center for the people experiencing homelessness in Gilroy. The city of Gilroy experienced the largest increase in people experiencing homelessness with a 64% increase from 2015. With an increase in the population comes an increased need for basic services, such as restrooms and showers. To address this need Gilroy Compassion Center has fitted their day Center with restrooms and showers. Yet with limited funding available the organization was unable to make them compliant with the Americans with Disability Act. This project was developed to secure funding through a county grant to make these important accommodations. The project included writing the grant and implementing the grant once funds were secured the writing of this grant resulted in $12,000 being secured for the bathrooms and showers to become compliant with the guidelines the Americans with disability act requires

Inclusivity In Usa Swimming: A Sport For Every Ability

There is a significant need for youth with disabilities to increase their participation in meaningful activities such as sport. However, several barriers exist which limit participation for youth with disabilities within sport including a lack of education for coaches on disability inclusion, non-accessible facilities, and lack of awareness regarding sport-related accommodations. The purpose of this project was to identify methods in which the USA Swimming (USA-S) organization could better support the inclusion of athletes of all abilities outside of disability-only sports programs. Through a literature review guided by the EHP framework, the author identified benefits of disability-inclusive sports teams as well as effective methods for implementation. Identified benefits for the child with the disability included enhanced social, physical, and cognitive skills, as well as supported transition into adulthood. Identified barriers for disability-inclusion included lack of education for coaches regarding athletes with disabilities as well as non-accessible facilities. Throughout the project the author collaborated with a local USA-S swimming team in West Fargo, North Dakota to analyze current coaching methods, needs, and to pilot disabilityinclusive resources. Results of the project have led to the development of the Swimming Coaches’ Manual for All Abilities. The manual includes disability-inclusive resources nested within a five-part organizational structure which includes: the Readiness for Change Assessment, the Need to Know Disability Resources, the Sharpening Skills, the Venue Accessibility Checklist, and the Venue Accessibility Statement Framework. The manual supports inclusion of athletes of all abilities within the sport of swimming by eliminating barriers and providing educational resources to USA-S coaches and their teams. This is an important step towards aligning with the USA-S Disability Committee’s mission statement regarding the involvement of people with disabilities apart from disability-only opportunities

Creating positive wayfinding experience

About half a century after Lynch\u27s research about way-finding, designers have been able to solve wayfinding problems more comprehensively. But the role of emotion, especially that of the positive ones on wayfinding design has seldom been systematically discussed before. My goal in writing this thesis is to increase the awareness of positive emotions and their impacts on wayfinding. A positive wayfinding experience is effective, efficient, as well as pleasurable and enjoyable. Key elements of a positive wayfinding experience include the consideration of environment, information, service, and emotion. A taxonomy of wayfinding experiences based on human needs instead of functions is introduced: in emergency, meeting deadline, resolute wayfinding, wandering and exploration, and happily get lost

Enhancing numerical modelling efficiency for electromagnetic simulation of physical layer components.

The purpose of this thesis is to present solutions to overcome several key difficulties that limit the application of numerical modelling in communication cable design and analysis. In particular, specific limiting factors are that simulations are time consuming, and the process of comparison requires skill and is poorly defined and understood. When much of the process of design consists of optimisation of performance within a well defined domain, the use of artificial intelligence techniques may reduce or remove the need for human interaction in the design process. The automation of human processes allows round-the-clock operation at a faster throughput. Achieving a speedup would permit greater exploration of the possible designs, improving understanding of the domain. This thesis presents work that relates to three facets of the efficiency of numerical modelling: minimizing simulation execution time, controlling optimization processes and quantifying comparisons of results. These topics are of interest because simulation times for most problems of interest run into tens of hours. The design process for most systems being modelled may be considered an optimisation process in so far as the design is improved based upon a comparison of the test results with a specification. Development of software to automate this process permits the improvements to continue outside working hours, and produces decisions unaffected by the psychological state of a human operator. Improved performance of simulation tools would facilitate exploration of more variations on a design, which would improve understanding of the problem domain, promoting a virtuous circle of design. The minimization of execution time was achieved through the development of a Parallel TLM Solver which did not use specialized hardware or a dedicated network. Its design was novel because it was intended to operate on a network of heterogeneous machines in a manner which was fault tolerant, and included a means to reduce vulnerability of simulated data without encryption. Optimisation processes were controlled by genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimisation which were novel applications in communication cable design. The work extended the range of cable parameters, reducing conductor diameters for twisted pair cables, and reducing optical coverage of screens for a given shielding effectiveness. Work on the comparison of results introduced ―Colour maps‖ as a way of displaying three scalar variables over a two-dimensional surface, and comparisons were quantified by extending 1D Feature Selective Validation (FSV) to two dimensions, using an ellipse shaped filter, in such a way that it could be extended to higher dimensions. In so doing, some problems with FSV were detected, and suggestions for overcoming these presented: such as the special case of zero valued DC signals. A re-description of Feature Selective Validation, using Jacobians and tensors is proposed, in order to facilitate its implementation in higher dimensional spaces

Public Transportation Accessibility: Perceptions of Riders with Disabilities in Utah

Transportation plays an essential role in social inclusion and participation, subjective well-being, and overall quality of life. A lack of private transportation options may make individuals with disabilities more dependent on public transportation systems. Despite increased use, people with disabilities continue to report barriers accessing public transportation services. Interestingly, little is known about these barriers at the regional transportation district level. The purpose of this study was to better understand the barriers and perceived accessibility of the Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) public transportation system for individuals with disabilities living within the UTA service area. Using an online survey, data were collected from 327 individuals with disabilities, family members of individuals with disabilities, or others who work with individuals with disabilities. This study found that individuals with disabilities generally have neutral to somewhat positive (accessible) views of UTA’s transportation services though there are differences based on disability type, modes of services used in general and specifically regarding fixed route service modes, and frequency of ridership are considered; that despite these neutral to somewhat accessible perceptions, barriers to accessing UTA’s fixed route and paratransit services exist, though there are differences based on disability type, modes of fixed route services used, and ridership frequency; and local and national policy changes may be necessary to resolve these barriers. The findings of this study have implications for UTA, other regional transportation districts, local and national transportation policy stakeholders, and the research community. For example, additional research is necessary to fully understand the specific system components which make UTA’s public transportation more accessible than has been indicated in previous studies, including an understanding of how these accessible practices could be generalized to other public transportation providers. Findings from future research could, in turn, be used to improve access to public transportation for individuals with disabilities. It is recognized that this study’s focus on electronic data collection and the potential influence of small subsamples underscores the need for additional research on the topics of perceived accessibility of public transportation and barriers to using public transportation services for individuals with disabilities