GIS Day Aggie Accessibility Contest This Week, iPad Mini First Prize

Nov 15, 2016

Come and take a group "selfie from space" in the field across from the O&M Building at 11am on Wednesday, November 16.

GIS Day, an educational event designed to promote Geographic Information Science & Technology, will be on Wednesday (Nov. 16) and Texas A&M is participating with the “Aggie Accessibility Mapping Challenge.”

Today through Wednesday, Texas A&M students are invited to locate and photograph features of the campus that make the university either accessible or inaccessible to people with disabilities.

Dan Goldberg, assistant professor of geography and computer science & engineering, is one of the organizers of the event and says the goal is to help Texas A&M Disabilities Services, Texas A&M Facilities Coordination and Texas A&M Transportation Services ensure the campus is as accessible as possible for disabled individuals. Texas A&M University Libraries is also sponsoring the event.

“We wanted to find a way to participate in GIS Day that would improve campus in some way,” Goldberg notes. “So we came up with the idea to collect data about areas and features on campus that are either helpful or hurtful to people trying to navigate with disabilities. Although campus is quite accessible, there is no way currently to measure where there needs to be improvement.”

To play, download the Texas A&M GIS Day app on your iPhone or Android phone; the app will display your location. Then walk around and find and photograph a location or feature that is accessible or inaccessible and submit the data.

The person who collects the most data will win the first prize of an iPad Mini 4; the second place winner will receive in-ear headphones. Goldberg says everyone on and off campus is encouraged to participate, but only currently enrolled students are eligible to win the prizes.

For more information, including contest rules, visit here.

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Media contact: Lesley Henton, 979-845-5591, lshenton@tamu.edu