Abstract
Accessibility is often treated as something that can be completed, but in practice, it is constantly changing and often unreliable. My technical capstone project, WahooWay, is an accessibility-centered campus navigation application that helps users find reliable accessible routes by combining official university data with user-reported updates. I chose this project because there exists a lack of accurate and dynamic accessibility information available to students trying to navigate college campuses. My STS research paper examines why accessibility barriers persist on university campuses despite legal protections like the ADA and advancements in navigation technologies. These two projects are directly connected through their focus on accessibility as a sociotechnical system, where technologies alone cannot solve the issues. While WahooWay is a tool to improve daily navigation, my STS research shows that its effectiveness will depend on institutional maintenance, coordination, and accountability, and not just software design.
WahooWay was developed to address the problem of unreliable accessibility information on college campuses because it makes navigation difficult for students with mobility needs. Existing campus maps are often static and fail to show real-time conditions like construction, blocked paths, or broken elevators. To help improve this, WahooWay integrates official data with user-reported updates to give more dynamic and accurate navigation information. This project was built using a full-stack approach, including a React front end, a Node.js and PostgreSQL backend, and mapping tools including Mapbox. User interviews, surveys, and pilot testing were also used to guide design decisions.
WahooWay shows that while technology can improve accessibility, it cannot fully solve navigation challenges on its own. The project shows a well-designed application that depends heavily on up-to-date and consistent user participation to remain reliable. Testing and user feedback tell us that dynamic updates help improve navigation challenges, but also show the limitations of relying on incomplete or outdated data. Because of this, the success of WahooWay is not only determined by its technical design but also by the ongoing support and maintenance behind it. This reinforces the idea that accessibility solutions must be a consistently maintained system.
My STS research paper looks at why accessibility barriers continue to exist even with legal protections and advances in technology. This question is significant because it focuses on the gap between what accessibility policies are intended to do and what is actually experienced. To examine this, I used a sociotechnical systems framework, which analyzes how policy, technology, institutional practices, and user experiences work together to influence accessibility outcomes. The methodology includes policy analysis of ADA requirements and university accessibility plans, a case study of the University of Virginia, and an evaluation of navigation technologies such as WahooWay.
The findings of my STS research show that accessibility challenges exist because universities often treat accessibility as a one-time compliance task instead of an ongoing responsibility. Evidence that was gathered shows a consistent gap between ADA requirements and actual navigation experiences. Institutional factors contribute to outdated or incomplete accessibility information. Overall, the results support the conclusion that accessibility must be understood as a continuously maintained sociotechnical system, which requires coordination between policy, technology, and institutional practices rather than relying on just technical solutions.
