Our second inclusive hackathon, RIX Hackathon25, took place this week at the Royal Docks Centre for Sustainability on UEL’s Docklands campus. The event was a great success and we’re already planning how we can make it even better next year.
After welcoming people and sharing some of our ideas around hackathons and inclusion, we enjoyed a presentation by Sean Gilroy from the BBC Inclusive Design Team, AI for All Minds: Designing UX for Neurodiversity. It was reassuring to hear how focused the BBC are on finding design solutions that ensure that this vital public service broadcaster works for everyone regardless of difference or disability. People had lots of questions for Sean and this showed how much we all value our beloved BBC.
We then revisited last year’s hackathon winner, the Robot Ramp, with a development update from Nic Hollinworth alongside Kiran and Baljit, two RIX co-researchers who use wheelchairs and were involved in the prototype design. Nic reassured the room by telling us that although progress may seem slow, the first Dyson vacuum cleaner went through thousands of prototypes before reaching the shops!
It was now time to look at our list of challenges and encourage people in the room to add their own via a QR code on the screen. The theme for this year’s event was Healthy Living and a lot of the challenges touched on the difficulties people have with eating and sleeping well and having a healthy lifestyle. These days we are surrounded by unhealthy ultra-processed food options in the shops, online, and in food advertising and it is not always easy to know what we should be eating. We split into eight small groups and started identifying the challenges we would work on in the afternoon.
After lunch we were treated to a three-way presentation by Simon Bedeau, Shelby Nurthen and Ruth Cooper from East London NHS Foundation Trust, Making Work Work. They talked about employment and training for people with learning disabilities and how we need to work together to improve access to employment. Again, people had lots of questions and it was clear that this is a challenge that chimes with people, many of whom will have had their own difficulties in finding and keeping a job.
The rest of the afternoon was taken up with the two hackathon sprints, workshop-like sessions at tables full of art and craft resources that teams could use to make prototypes and build their solutions. Each table had a mix of people with lived experience of difference and disability, Learn International students, UEL interns, RIX staff and others.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we came back together and each team presented their solution to the challenges they had identified. Solutions included the iFit app from the Junk Out Gym In team, a Progress in Motion website from the Progress in Motion team providing accessible and customisable exercise programs, and an easy read cookbook from the Green Plate team. After all the teams had shared their ideas, we had the chance to vote for a winner and, on the promise of a celebratory rap, first place went to Team Munchies for their cookABLE app, an audiovisual and customisable recipe resource incorporating AI that would make cooking more accessible. True to their word and to everyone’s delight, two members of the team performed a celebratory rap!
A big thank you to everyone who participated in Hackathon25 and to our guest presenters from the BBC Inclusive Design Team and East London NHS Foundation Trust.
We will be sharing a video of the event soon as well as a save the date for next year’s RIX Hackathon26.