PRES TEAM EXCELS AT HACK ACCESS DUBLIN
A GROUP of Presentation College Bray 5th years received an award recently at the Hack Access Dublin event in Google headquarters.
The Bray students came second place overall and will be receiving a cash prize and mentoring to see their idea realised.
This was a hackathon event bringing Dublin’s innovators from various disciplines like engineering, technology, design and public service together to tackle various challenges that exclude people with a disability from society .
The group was invited to attend on the strength of other work in which they had participated.
Jack Lawlor, Lochlann Megannety, Conor Kelly, Killian Taylor and Pearse O’Neill developed a rating system for Dublin spaces around disability usage.
They were competing against social innovators, IT and web practitioners, and graduates. The students were among the youngest participants there. They were also privileged to be given coaching in the art of pitching for projects from one of the tutors from Dragons Den.
The innovation by the young men includes a series of badges an establishment strives to earn which certify its accessibility in relation to each badge, with categories including mobility impaired, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing.
A website or app would let people know which establishments have been certified and to give businesses suggestions and examples of how to improve their accessibility.
An establishment registers for an assessment online and is sent an empty family sticker. Once they show proof of improvement which meet the criteria of each badge, they are assessed by an official with expertise in the area. If they earn a badge, they can proudly display and publicise it, and they will be added to the online list or map of certified establishments.
A member of the public signs up online and can then give reviews on the certified establishments in an effort to make sure the standard of accessibility does not drop after earning the badge.