20 challenges for a more inclusive future

Published

18 July 2024

The Rix Inclusive Research Institute at the University of East London this month organised a hackathon at the Royal Docks Centre for Sustainability to identify and solve 20 challenges that people face in the health and wellbeing sector.

Gosia Kwiatkowska, Director of the Rix Inclusive Research Institute welcomed the event as an opportunity for collaboration. She said, “I felt excited, motivated, elevated, it was such a fantastic event. It was lovely to see so many people with different experiences talking about barriers and challenges – and then to see people working on those problems and sharing solutions. I’m looking forward to working with the people who attended today to address these problems in the future.”

Image captionParticipants working together in groups to solve 20 challenges that people face in the health sector.

The fun, inclusive and solution-focused event featured interactive workshops where people with different life experiences worked together to share their ideas. Participants included Rix co-researchers, UEL students and staff, and people from the wider community.

Robin Pickering, Design Engineer at Goya Design studio, participated in the event and enjoyed the sessions to solve problems, work as a team and meet new people. She said, “I’ve never worked in such a diverse space before. The event has been exciting, with each of the sprints having lots of breaks to give us time to think and imagine.”

The challenges tackled at the hackathon included helping people through the ticket barriers at stations by re-imagining their design and improving housing access and adaptations through a dedicated mobile phone app to provide guidance and signpost services.

Craig Wilkie, Research Fellow at the Rix, explained the importance of co-participation for research into these types of events. He said, “We achieved our objectives – to plan and deliver an inclusive hackathon event. We can’t find any research about similar events, so we feel that we have found something very special here. Working with people who have lived experience of disability to solve problems in partnership and overcome challenges together.”

During the afternoon, each team presented their challenge and solutions. The winning team and runners-up won a prize of gift vouchers.

The winning team designed a fully autonomous ramp that allows people to move easily between a platform and the train carriage. People with disabilities usually need to request a ramp 24 hours in advance. Their concept meant that anyone could spontaneously travel by train, summoning the ramp from their phone. Designers and artists even imagined personalising the ramp with colours, LEDs and music.

The Rix believes that some of the biggest challenges people face can be overcome with solutions that are closer to home than we thought possible.

By exploring these solutions, the Rix team attendees contributed to a more inclusive society, where people’s lives can be transformed, and businesses and organisations can deliver better, more efficient services.

Hear from the participants themselves by visiting the Hackathon20 Wiki.

The hackathon was supported and funded by the Centre for Wellbeing Community and Inclusion at the University of East London.