Eva Shang

Eva Shang

In this map of Harvard Yard and Harvard Square, I tried to first lay out an accurate scaling of the distance between major landmarks, but also to feature barriers or landmarks that are not entirely ADA compliant. My sister uses a wheelchair, and on her visits to Harvard Square, I’ve developed an eye for roads that her wheelchair would have trouble traversing. Harvard Square is particularly hilly, coming up from the river, and at some locations, there aren’t smooth pedestrian walkways for us to take. Some of the paths that are particularly tricky are Dunster St, which is brick-laid and incredibly bumpy, the road coming up from Adams to the Yard, which is extremely steep and often crowded, and the stairs coming out of Lowell, towards Quincy. I also sought to highlight some incredibly well-designed buildings, such as the Art museum, which features an aesthetically pleasing accessibility ramp that isn’t tucked behind a side entrance. Incorporating accessibility into how we think about and conceptualize design is incredibly important to me, and I wanted to highlight where it was done well and done poorly in Harvard Square.

From a broad overview on Google Maps, I noticed that because I was coming from a handicapped pedestrian perspective, the location of buildings frequently did not correspond to where one could actually enter them. For instance, while the entrance to Widener is inside Harvard Yard, the handicapped entrance to Widener is all the way on the other side of the building. A map that directs based on the shortest route also might not be the easiest route for someone in a wheelchair.