Graduate Capstones

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Browsing Graduate Capstones by Department "Geography"

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    Mitigating the Physical Barriers of a Post-Secondary Education: Accessible Mobility Mapping and Rollshed Analysis for Vancouver Island University
    (2020-07) Lamoureux, Zachary; Fast, Victoria
    This project provided the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Nanaimo campus with a detailed accessible mobility (AM) map and rollshed and routing analysis. The VIU campus consists of numerous steep pedestrian pathways that complicate the navigation of mobility-limited individuals. The goal was to mitigate physical barriers in the built environment by providing campus pedestrians with wayfinding and navigational information while simultaneously supporting the future AM work by VIU administration and facilities. Additionally, it was desired that the AM mapping methodology of this project be reproduceable for other institutions. First, a data typology was developed, and data was collected for several aids and barriers to AM. The data was refined into a campus map by categorizing pathway slope into accessible, steep and very sleep classes, and adding additional AM and ancillary information. The data was again refined to produce the rollsheds and AM routes. An average travel speed, path costs and path barriers were identified and used in a service area analysis to determine the distance a manual and powered wheelchair user could travel in a set amount of time. The map was released in September of 2019 and has reduced the amount of AM wayfinding and navigation questions received by Disability Access Services. The general methodology of the map is reproduceable, however it requires that an analyst make decisions that will ensure it depicts the most crucial barriers and aids to mobility found in the built environment. The rollsheds and routes highlighted AM weaknesses in the pedestrian network and is important information for the VIU administration and facilities to consider when discussing future plans for the campus.