Reflection - Vision Stream Data Collection by Shruti Wani

Introduction 

The objective of the “The Stakeholder’s Walkability/Wheel ability Audit in Neighborhoods (SWAN)” (Project lead: Atiya Mahmood, at Simon Fraser University) is to evaluate how the neighborhood’s-built environment impacts mobility access and participation among older adults and individuals with mobility, sensory, and mild cognitive disabilities (Mahmood et al., 2020). SWAN is a micro-scale user-led audit tool. The study participants serve as co-researchers and collect the data with support from research team members. Data are collected across five domains of functionality, safety, appearance and maintenance, land use and supportive features, and social aspects (Mahmood et al., 2020).

There is limited research done to understand the impact of environmental features on older adults with vision loss (McGrath et al., 2017). The SWAN tool records the impact of environmental features for residents with mobility, sensory, and mild cognitive disabilities. Advancement in research can help urban planners in better planning of neighborhoods to include older adults with mobility, sensory, and mild cognitive disabilities.

Personal Reflections

I am currently a fourth-year Resource and Environmental Management student with a focus on urban planning. When I started my research assistant (RA) position in 2023, I had limited exposure to community-engaged research on the role of the built environment on pedestrian mobility and participation. I joined the Stakeholder’s Walkability/Wheel ability Audit in Neighborhoods (SWAN) project to gain experience working on a community-engaged project with people living with disabilities, and to learn how urban planning and design of neighborhoods can promote inclusion and social participation of this group of pedestrians. As an RA in the SWAN project, I had the opportunity to be involved in the data collection phase for the vision stream, focusing on people living with vision impairment. The goal of this phase is to understand the barriers and facilitators that people with vision impairments face while navigating streets in the Metro Vancouver area.

The SWAN Audit Tool includes a series of observational questions about the presence and absence of built environment features on neighborhood intersections and sidewalks. The participants, with the help of the research team members, complete this audit tool. This is followed by an interview with the participants to go more in-depth into what they observed during their data collection session. In the following section, I highlight some key learnings from these data collection sessions.

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