Inclusivity
In our journey as students, we’ve identified a crucial need to make our laboratories more accessible to everyone, particularly for peers with physical differences. We believe that we can be the catalysts for meaningful change by identifying and addressing barriers within our lab environments. By critically assessing our spaces, we’ve proposed rearrangements of lab stations to ensure clear, wide pathways and implemented a systematic approach to organizing and labeling tools, ensuring they are user-friendly and reachable for all. Additionally, we’ve developed a peer-assistance program, where we collaborate and assist each other, ensuring that every student can navigate and utilize the lab effectively and participate fully in all activities.
Moreover, we recognize that fostering a culture of empathy and inclusivity within our lab is equally vital. We’ve organized awareness sessions and workshops, aiming to highlight the importance and benefits of an accessible and inclusive environment. Engaging in open dialogues, where we can express our specific needs and challenges, has been pivotal in creating a supportive community where adaptations are made collaboratively. We’ve also established a student-led committee focused on accessibility and inclusivity, ensuring that the needs of all students are considered in ongoing and future lab activities. By advocating for and implementing these changes, we are not only facilitating a more accessible lab environment but also contributing significantly to building a more inclusive and empathetic scientific community.
For the inclusivity part of our project, we decided to focus on lab tools and find ways we can make them more widely accessible for usage. Our iGEM team partnered with the Agility center at the University of Lethbridge who showed us the creative process and how to come up with ideas to improve lab equipment.
Alice and Kevin of the U of L Agility Centre.
We decided to focus on pipettes and the difficulty of pipetting, especially for people who have problems with motor control. This was our focus because even fully capable people have a hard time with pipetting so when shakiness is added it is nearly impossible to pipette correctly and efficiently. Our team came up with the idea to create a holder for pipettes that it adjustable for the different size pipettes and tubes as well as putting the holder on a track so it is easy to pipette into multiple different tubes.
For our first model we made it out of cardboard to see if our idea is feasible. We wanted to create a holder for pipettes that is fully adjustable for the types of tubes and pipettes that are being used. All that is needed is to stick a pipette into the holder and the piece that holds the pipette is movable, so you do not have to remove it or move the entire holder when going from one tube to another.
We identified a few flaws with our initial design, such as the stand was too tall, it should be able to adjust in height, and the moveable pipette holder piece should not come out of the stand. Next, we asked Alice and Kevin from U of L’s Agility centre to help us design the pipette guide in AutoCAD to be printed by the 3D printer.
Our final version can be downloaded on Thingiverse. We identified a few changes we wanted to make with this version as well. Adjustable legs to accommodate different rack and tube heights and locks that would hold the pipette guide in place.
