Zaccesible |

Crowdsourcing research: Accessible Zaragoza and PEST Project

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 13:00:06 +0000

In this seminar I will present two research projects that share a crowdsourced approach: and . Accessible Zaragoza is an action-research project of collaborative mapping about urban accessibility in the city of Zaragoza (Spain) I led while I was lecturing at the School of Architecture and Technology at San Jorge University. Accessible Zaragoza was aimed to create a collaborative online map that contributes to increase the autonomy of people with functional diversity and hence, their social integration and living standards. PEST Project is the project led by Tim Jones and Ben Spencer at which aims to coproduce an indicators matrix to increase understanding of place-based policy and activity in relation to active travel in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

'Accessible Zaragoza' at Pint of Science 2018

Wed, 16 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Let me propose an exercise: close your eyes for a moment and imagine a person devoted to science and research. Almost certainly, you may have visualized a middle-aged man in a white robe and glasses who is doing “things” in a laboratory or in front of a computer, probably to solve a problem related to health, the environment or making a process more efficient. If I have “read your mind” it is not because you are a predictable person, but because that is (with small variations) the most frequent image about scientists. Unfortunately, this view reflects some prejudices (such as gender¹ and thinking that sciences are always applied sciences² and limited to what is usually known as “natural sciences”³) and also evidence that the tasks that a scientific person does are incomprehensible to most people and, therefore, are a complete mystery.

It is precisely to bridge this disconnect between society and science that the initiative was born in 2012. Ever since, it has spread from the United Kingdom to 21 countries on all continents (except ). The idea behind Pint of Science is as simple as it is effective: to convert pubs into meeting points between science and society. To this end, for three days in a row, a festival is organised in several pubs from different cities and countries in which scientists explain their work to the audience for about 15 minutes, followed by a debate watered by the omnipresent beers that populate the majority of pubs worldwide (hence its name). There is also the funny case that some of the people attending the festival are totally unaware of the existence of the festival.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, because this year I participated as a speaker in the Zaragoza edition together with my colleague and friend Miguel Sevilla-Callejo to tell about the project of which , , with the talk we titled “About chairs, chairs, kerbs and traffic lights. #zaccessibility for improving the mobility of people with functional diversity” that you can see .

ESTA TARDE 19h en @harlem_zaragoza no te pierdas sesiones sobre #geografía #mapas #accesibilidad #diversidadfuncional. @carlescamara
y @msevilla00 hablarán sobre #zaccesibilidad #Pint18ES #Pint18ZGZ @pintofscienceES cc @ZGZActiva @Geografia_UZ @ArquitecturaUSJ pic.twitter.com/aAV4WG9Rq0
— Mapeado Colaborativo / Geoinquietos Zaragoza (@MapColabora) May 14, 2018

Our talk was one of the three of the session titled “ ” that took place on Monday, May 14 at the and in which also participated , from the Colegio de Geógrafos de Aragón, and , member of Aragonese parliament.

Lujazo de ponentes en el Harlem! #Pint18ES #pint18zgz #ParalaPoSteridad Y mañana más, a partir de las 19.00! pic.twitter.com/0n3Sve6GEo

— Silvi 🤷🤦🏽‍♀️ (@sylviezgz) May 14, 2018

Rafa talked about the work that geographers do and the importance of geography to understand and explain phenomena of all kinds and that have to do with how we perceive and relate to the world and its physical environment, using an endless number of curious maps.

Queréis saber para qué sirve la geografía en nuestro día a día? Pues pasaros por el Harlem, pero daros prisa, que ya ha empezado! #Pint18ES #pint18zgz #ParalaPoSteridad pic.twitter.com/YkdEx0zc8v

— Silvi 🤷🤦🏽‍♀️ (@sylviezgz) May 14, 2018

In his entertaining talk entitled “Nobody’s perfect: I have no arms”, Raúl recounted his personal experience in order to raise awareness of how the daily life of a person with a disability can be but, above all, in order to break taboos about disability. All of that with a great mixture of humour, rawness and tenderness.

En la segunda charla en el Harlem, @viajeroaitaca_ nos ha hablado sobre "discapacidad, quirófanos y demás cosas divertidas" #Pint18ES #pint18zgz #ParalaPoSteridad pic.twitter.com/15cS3OqbKH

— Silvi 🤷🤦🏽‍♀️ (@sylviezgz) May 14, 2018

Finally, Miguel and I explained the need for a map like the one we are developing on urban accessibility and the opportunity to do it collaboratively using not only to denounce, but to co-responsibility of citizenship and contribute to improving the autonomy of people with functional diversity.

Mapeado colaborativo en la sesión de retrones y satélites 🛰 #pint18ZGZ Aúpa con esta gran iniciativa de @MapColabora by @carlescamara @msevilla00 et al. pic.twitter.com/PRkmgosF6x
— Rafa 🌐 (@Galactero) May 14, 2018

Buenas noticias! Todos podemos mapear! Nos lo cuentan @carlescamara y @msevilla00 de @MapColabora en el Harlem #Pint18ES #pint18zgz #ParalaPoSteridad pic.twitter.com/IEgtlYQYcb

— Silvi 🤷🤦🏽‍♀️ (@sylviezgz) May 14, 2018

The experience was unbeatable, both for the interesting and complementary previous talks, and for the organization of the event through the association that organizes Pint of science (thanks in particular to Carlos, Juan and Silvia for their work), but especially for the reception of the public, which lent itself to an interesting debate that lasted until the closing time of the bar.

According to the report “ ” elaborated in 2015 by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, the number of women researchers was quantified, for that year, in 38% of the total number of researchers. That figure shows that women are not an exception in research, although it is true that there is still a lot of room for improvement (especially if we asess the positions that these researchers occupy, but that is out of the scope of this text) and therefore campaigns such as those that are becoming habitual to attract women towards careers of the calls (Science, Technology, Enginery and Mathematics). ↩︎
Applied sciences are those that are oriented to apply scientific knowledge of one or more specialized areas of science to solve practical problems. Given their “applicability,” that is, their ability to solve very specific problems, they tend to be easier to explain and understand and, therefore, tend to receive greater attention from society, as well as more funding. In contrast to this type of science is the basic science, that is to say that scientific research that is carried out to increase knowledge, without having an immediate practical purpose. Since this type of research does not offer immediate (social, economic …) benefits, it is usually considered unnecessary because it is a mere exercise in curiosity. The reality, however, is that the benefits of this type of research are obtained in the longer term, since it is what allows the creation of new knowledge on which applied science can now be based. ↩︎
It is often forgotten that, in addition to natural sciences, there are social sciences, aimed at studying society and human behavior, which include disciplines as varied as sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, history .. and even those related to language such as linguistics (which often do not relate at all to research), amongst others. ↩︎

'Accessible Zaragoza' is now on TV

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

During the last few years, I have hardly shown any activity on this website. This is because they have coincided with periods of considerable intensity, especially in terms of work. I already wrote about , and today I would like to write about another other one: , the collaborative mapping project of aspects related to urban mobility and disability that I devised in the academic year 2015-16 within a chair at the Universidad San Jorge and in which I have been working as a principal investigator since then.

For some time I have been looking forward to share it here because it is a project in which I am putting a lot of enthusiasm and effort and which, on the other hand, is giving me many joys. One of them was the , but the most recent has been to have participated in the program of scientific dissemination of Aragón TV “ ”, which was broadcasted last Saturday, and in which I had the opportunity to participate and explain what the project¹ consists of.

You can see the (in Spanish, though). Starting at minute 12:55, I explain to the particle physicist Carlos Pobes the particularities of Accessible Zaragoza². Additionally, the program features Javier Monclús, researcher in architecture and urbanism at the University of Zaragoza, who opens the chapter by explaining the role that our cities play in our lives (which introduces our project very well); and Antonio Tausiet, who presents the project , a repository of surprising images of the city, both current and old. The rest of the footage is dedicated in the survey section to some of the myths about menstruation and to the invention of the chair folder.

Some images of the program, whose full content can be seen in

I have to admit that this is the first time I’ve participated in a TV show like this and it was a very enriching experience to record and prepare it. I was pleasantly surprised by the meticulous and respectful work made by , producers of “En ruta con la ciencia “. After the first contact, in which their staff gave me an operational overview of their program, I had a telephone interview that lasted for more than one hour with the documentary filmmaker Isabel (I don’t remember her last name). After having read all the documentation that I had previosuly facilitated to her, she asked me very specific questions and clarified doubts, making obvious that she had already carefully reviewed my matrials). At the same time, this work served to elaborate a script that they handed me in order to guide the interview that Carlos Pobes would make me a few days later. After the interview, part of the staff joined me on my workplace at San Jorge University, where we recorded more shots.

Honestly, I have to admit that I am very happy both with the experience of recording the program as with the final result, and I can do nothing but reiterate what I did on twitter and thank the entire team of [Sintregua] ( ), first, for giving us the opportunity to publicize our project and, second, for making a program so careful and with great respect for our work.

Muchas gracias por dedicarnos unos minutos a explicar el proyecto #zaccesible (https://t.co/ocrkHpUZ81) en un programa tan interesante como cuidado, y además, por hacerlo en gran compañía. cc/ @edmldmv @ArquitecturaUSJ @MapColabora
— Carlos Cámara Menoyo - ccamara@mastodon.social (@carlescamara) February 17, 2018

I would also like to thank all the people and entities that have participated in the project and, last, but not least, I would also like to emphasize that anyone willing to help us will be more than welcome.

Aprovecho también para dar las gracias a todas aquellas personas y entidades que han contribuido y siguen contribuyendo a hacer de #zaccesible una realidad: https://t.co/o7GtR9894W cc @DiscapacitadoSF @MapColabora @Hiri_Lagunkoiak @ganchillosocial #mundocrip ...
— Carlos Cámara Menoyo - ccamara@mastodon.social (@carlescamara) February 17, 2018

Y por supuesto, para recalcar que cualquiera puede formar parte del proyecto! Si quieres saber cómo ayudar en #zaccesible aquí te lo explicamos: https://t.co/aT2ZfJBmoh
— Carlos Cámara Menoyo - ccamara@mastodon.social (@carlescamara) February 17, 2018

Other no less important joys are the that I have had the opportunity to meet and work side by side with great people, such as the members of [Collaborative Mapping] ( ), which I founded almost unintentionally thanks to the then Director of Zaragoza Activa Las Armas José Ramon Insa and Miguel Sevilla-Callejo ([here I talked about it] ( , the people of [Disabled Without Borders Aragon] ( ) and [Mundo Crip] ( ) (I have yet to meet Marta Valencia, of the , who showed his interest in the project but we haven’t been able to match yet), as well as Mikel Gómez and the rest of the ’s staff and a lot of people from [OpenStreetMap] ( ) community. ↩︎
If the explanation of the program falls short you can always see the [specific website of the project] ( ), where you can find more information. ↩︎