Community Air Quality Monitoring – Funding Available
On 2nd June 2015 Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
Mapping for Change can now enable up to four communities to undertake Air Quality Mapping projects by offering them a share of £1,000 funding. Proposals are invited from communities across London. The funds will cover the cost of purchasing diffusion tubes to measure nitrogen dioxide (NO2), laboratory analysis, and map creation. There is a strong likelihood of media coverage throughout the project.
Space to Grow Old In: Mobility in Kilburn
On 4th March 2015 Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
Yesterday morning, Mapping for Change ventured out of the office to attend one of the lively Kilburn Older Voices Exchange events; Older people and the street environment. Keen to discuss issues with accessibility, and factors which influence people’s decisions to get out and about in their local community, we met at a snowy West Hampstead station and headed towards the Kingsgate Resource Centre.
Lessons in Accessibility: UCL Try It!
On 13th February 2015 Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
It may sound obvious to state that universities should be accessible. Of course, all education should take place in sites where everyone feels encouraged and able to participate, regardless of age, gender or background. However, there’s a more fundamental aspect to the term accessibility, but it’s one that is not always considered. This is the accessibility of a university’s built environment, and that is what UCL Try It! aimed to explore here in London.
Try It! The UCL Access Challenge
On 30th January 2015 Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
On February 12th, Mapping for Change will be participating in a series of activities designed to raise awareness about access issues on the UCL campus.
Accessibility Questionnaire
On 23rd January 2015 Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
Are you a wheelchair user, or someone who uses another type of mobility aid to get around? Will you help us out by sharing your expertise and experiences?
Here at Mapping for Change, we’ve been busy working on one of our current projects, My Accessible EU. This project aims to develop digital tools, such as mobile phone applications, that will enable people to collect and share information about accessibility in European cities. Part of this will involve the creation of applications to help plan journeys and navigate when on route. To ensure these tools are as beneficial as possible, we need insights and feedback from people like you!
Communities Embark on Air Quality Mapping
On Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
After receiving £1000 funding in November, Mapping for Change called for up to four communities to conduct air quality monitoring work in their local area. Each community would undertake a month-long monitoring process during February 2015, placing plastic diffusion tubes in strategic areas to measure nitrogen dioxide levels.
Come to our Mapping Party!
On 7th November 2014 Hannah posted in Events, Featured, News
Mapping party!
This week, the Mapping for Change team have been busily preparing for our Wheelmap Mapping Parties! These events will coincide with UN Enable’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities – held annually on December 3rd.
For 2014, the UN have chosen ‘Sustainable Development: the Promise of Technology’ as a theme, to highlight the promises and limitations of technology that are experienced by people with disabilities. Technology has the power to bring far-reaching, positive change, and no groups should be excluded from this.
Given the technological scope of our ongoing project, My Accessible EU, the day seemed like an excellent opportunity to host a series of activities: et voila! The idea of a pan-European Mapping Party was born!
Mapping for Change Access All Areas with TfL!
On 6th October 2014 Hannah posted in Events, Featured
Here at Mapping for Change, we’ve been busy working on our latest project – the EU-funded My Accessible EU. Accessibility is a key issue in cities all over the world. However, for various reasons, plenty of people can often struggle to access services and facilities. These issues are likely to affect everyone at some point in their lives: as parents or carers with pushchairs, as wheelchair users, or more generally as people grow older and become less mobile. My Accessible EU hopes to raise awareness about these problems, and devise new tools and technologies which can help to make European cities more inclusive places for everyone.
Street Mobility at Abbey Road Coffee Morning
On 1st October 2014 Hannah posted in Events, Featured
Last Friday, Mapping for Change joined a group of residents at the Abbey Road Community Centre for their weekly coffee morning. The centre is situated on Belsize road, midway between Kilburn High Road and West Hampstead Overground stations. We were welcomed to their garden room with coffee and custard creams, and spent a couple of hours nibbling away, and discussing people’s experiences of the local area.
Science in the City Maps Dust Storm
On 18th June 2014 Louise posted in Events, Featured
As part of the Science in the City project, residents of the Barbican Estate in the City of London monitored their local air quality between October 2013 and May 2014. Since February, residents have been using handheld sensors to track the presence of PM2.5 particulates* whilst on their everyday journeys and have managed to capture the effects of the dust storm in their community.
Twenty-five Barbican residents took part, carrying the sensors for up to five days each and making eighty-seven journeys in total. Although Science in the City focuses on air quality around the Barbican Estate, residents carried the sensors as far as Darlington and Cambridge providing a wealth of information illustrating changes in air quality across the country as well as in the Barbican area.