Blog

At this year's DEEP conference (October 12-13, 2018), the Inclusive Cities team presented an overview of their co-design process and shared their challenges and learnings from doing multiple different embedded or led co-design sessions in different contexts. Following the presentation, there was a co-design session with about 35 people including individuals from the Greater Toronto Area, Colombia, Mexico, and Nigeria. Read more.

The IDRC partnered with Plant a Home to hold a co-design session on September 16th. Two representatives from Plant a Home facilitated the session with nine participants from Toronto, Woodstock, and London. Plant a Home is a social enterprise based in London Ontario that seeks to provide independent, long-term housing for adults with developmental disabilities. Read more.

The third co-design session focused on the topic of Threshold moments. At this session participants were tasked with discussing their experiences with different types of thresholds or transition points in their urban experience, brainstorming solutions to the challenges they experienced, and prototyping their ideas. For the discussions, groups were assigned one of three topics related to thresholds: Up and down (moving between different levels of a space), In and out (moving in and out of spaces), and Getting around (transitioning between different modes of transportation). Read more.

IDRC partnered with Houselink and organized an embedded co-design session at their Bloor Street location. The session included thirteen participants with lived experience of a mental illness or drug abuse/addiction who engaged in various activities over two separate sessions. Read more.

The second of three co-design sessions focused on the topic of Dynamic Streets. At this session participants were tasked with discussing their current experiences navigating streets, brainstorming solutions, and prototyping their ideas. For the discussions, groups were assigned one of three topics related to dynamic streetscapes: managing conflicting needs in shared spaces, wayfinding and orientation in dynamic spaces, and shared spaces that are perceivable, operable, and understandable for all. Read more.

IDRC partnered with Dream Team and organized an embedded co-design session at their Bloor Street location. The session included eleven participants with lived experience of a mental illness or drug abuse/addiction who engaged in various activities over two separate sessions. Read more.

IDRC partnered with Helen Keller Centre and organized an embedded co-design session at their North York Centre. The session was held on September 28th, 2018. Read more.

As part of our continued efforts to include diverse perspectives in creation of inclusive cities, IDRC partnered with PARC and organized an embedded co-design session to be completed during their staff meeting on September 26th, 2018. Read more.

The hackathon session was held on September 21st at the Sidewalk Toronto office at 307 Lakeshore Boulevard East, Toronto. 12 engineers from Sidewalk labs as well as 27 people from the community joined this event. The members of the community included engineers, designers, and people with lived experience of a disability. Read more.

The first of three co-design sessions focused on the topic of Inclusive Feedback and Engagement. At this session participants were tasked with mapping out the journey of giving or receiving feedback from their personal experience as a group. Later in the afternoon, groups were tasked with building a prototype that could address some problems identified in the morning through their journey maps. Read more.

The Community Living Ontario co-design session was held on September 26th at OCAD University at 49 McCaul Street. The event was attended by 23 participants, including members of Community Living Ontario, and participants who represented lived experience of developmental disabilities. Read more.

As part of our continued efforts to include diverse perspectives in creation of inclusive cities, IDRC partnered with Creative Amnesty and organized an embedded co-design session at the Deaf Culture Centre. The session was held on September 16th, 2018 at the Deaf Culture Centre in the Distillery District. Read more.

We've gone through all of the great ideas from the co-design sessions and selected 8 of them to prototype at the September 21 Hackathon. For each one, we've prepared a design challenge, which lists the required features and intended use cases for the project. Read more.

The last of three co-design sessions was held on September 5th and 6th at the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) at 49 McCaul Street. The focus of the third session was thresholds. Read more.

We're looking for engineers, product designers, and folks with lived experience in accessibility and inclusive design to spend a day with the Sidewalk engineering team and our OCADU partners to build prototypes! Read more.

The second of three co-design sessions was held on August 24th at the Sidewalk Labs office at 307 Lakeshore Boulevard East, Toronto. The focus of the second session was dynamic streets. Read more.

The first of three co-design sessions was held on August 8th at 49 McCaul street, Toronto. The session began at 9:30 am and ended around 5:00 pm, with the theme of inclusive feedback and engagement. Read more.

As part of our efforts to include diverse perspectives in creation of inclusive cities, IDRC organized an embedded co-design session in elementary and middle schools with grade 3, 5, and 6 students. Read more.

IDRC has agreed to work with the Sidewalk Toronto team to help with creation of their accessibility and inclusion principles. We would like to invite you to join a co-design process to contribute your ideas about creating an inclusive, welcoming, and livable city. Read more.

The cities being built today are the cities our children will be living in as adults. However, children are seldom included in urban design and planning conversations and processes. Read more.

Last week at their public roundtable meeting, Sidewalk Toronto announced a new partnership with OCAD University to address accessibility issues in their Quayside project. Read more.

We've been thinking through some ways IDRC might be able to contribute to Sidewalk Toronto project to address issues and concerns related to accessibility and inclusion. Read more.