M.U.P. student wins planning app award

Master of Urban Planning student, Jared Talaga, competed in the American Planning Association Innovating Planning Apps for Planners: A Student and Emerging Professional Challenge on Apr. 3, 2016, in Phoenix, AZ at the APA National Conference against four other teams of urban planning students from Columbia University, UCLA, University Illinois Urbana, and University of Ottawa.

Talaga's proposed app called Access Point came in second place. AccessPoint is a crowdsourcing app to increase accessibility for everyone.

The app would allow those with different mobility abilities to understand ADA regulations, rate a building's level of accessibility, know which buildings are going to be easiest for them to use, and allow them to report ADA violations to their planning jurisdiction in a much easier and more useful way.

Users can also see which establishments have higher levels of accessibility and choose to be patrons at those establishments over those with lower levels of accessibility.

In theory, individuals with unique mobility needs will be able to use their market force to drive other organizations to increase the accessibility and inclusivity of their facilities.