Making Accessible Climate Change Interventions

The design and implementation of any equitable intervention begins when we accurately understand different stakeholder perspectives. This fact holds true for technological interventions and global phenomena like climate change. The projects listed below aim to understand how disabled populations intersect with/have intersected with different climate change interventions.

  • Accessibility audit of current climate change Interventions. This project will involve curating a list of climate change-specific interventions. We will then run an accessibility audit on each available intervention and document our findings. 
  • Perceptions of climate change among disabled populations. This project will conduct an online survey to understand the needs/values/perceptions of climate change among disabled communities. 
  • Public Transit x LA's climate goals. This project will explore transit-related strategies in LA's climate action plan. 

Research Artifacts: Each project team will summarize their findings in a 5 - 8 page paper. There will also be an opportunity to document your research experience in an ACM Interactions reflection piece. 

Meeting Expectations: In addition to working independently, student researchers should be prepared to participate in 1-hour team meetings. 

To Apply: If this work interests you, I invite you to submit an essay using the following prompt:  1) Why are you interested in this project and 2) What has been your experience with climate change? (~2 paragraphs).

Name of research group, project, or lab
CACTI Lab
Why join this research group or lab?

My goal is to build a community of emerging scholars interested in leveraging human-centered methodologies to design for equity in future climate change interventions and public transit interfaces. 

Logistics Information:
Project categories
Computer Science
Environmental Science
Human-centered Design
Human-Computer Interaction
Student ranks applicable
First-year
Sophomore
Junior
Student qualifications

Skills that are nice to have for this project include:

  • Reading up on climate action strategies and other foundational material in climate change and disability
  • Human-centered design
  • Designing online surveys
  • Conducting accessibility audits
  • Qualitative data analysis
  • Good data organization
  • Ample time in schedule to attend lab meetings and work independently 

In case any of the projects excite you and you haven't had past experience collaborating on a research project, then the skill that is a must-have is an enthusiasm to learn the above skills.

Time commitment
Spring - Part Time
Compensation
Academic Credit
Number of openings
6
Techniques learned
  • Survey design
  • Qualitative data analysis
  • Accessibility audit
Project start
Spring 2025
Contact Information:
Mentor
lkirabo@hmc.edu
Principal Investigator
Name of project director or principal investigator
Lynn Kirabo
Email address of project director or principal investigator
kirabo@cs.hmc.edu
6 sp. | 0 appl.
Hours per week
Spring - Part Time
Project categories
Human-centered Design (+3)
Computer ScienceEnvironmental ScienceHuman-centered DesignHuman-Computer Interaction