Designing For Inclusion
School bells are made as only an auditory que, therefore those who are hearing impaired will not be able to make use them correctly. This can lead to them being late to their classes because they cannot hear the bell signaling to them to return to class.
This design problem inhibits inclusion because if a student is late for their class because they had missed the sound of the school bell, they will be singled out for arriving late and may even receive punishments for something caused by this design flaw. It reinforces the exclusionary social practice of the assumption that those with hearing impairments will be alerted by others when the bell rings. This assumption means that the design only works for those with hearing impairments when others are present, and they rely on them.
A structural barrier that has prolonged this design problem is that a loud auditory bell is the easiest and most cost efficient way to alert a large group of people, and without considering exclusionary features the school bell would be the best design decision to appeal to the majority of the users despite the flaws.
A way of alerting students with hearing impairments would be to include a visual indicator that the bell has rung and class is in session, this could be a sign over doorways that illuminates once specific times occur. This solution would be installed into the school and not require the students to have any additional hardware themselves. This would also counteract exclusion since the design would be useful for all students and would not signal out those with hearing impairments.
This design solution addresses the problem with school bells only being auditory therefore being easily missed by the hearing impaired. This design flaw is exclusionary because the school bells are not functional for those that are deaf or have hearing impairments, requiring them to rely on others. My design solution remedies this problem by adding a visual component to the school bell system that makes its more functional for everyone by alerting several senses, therefore those with hearing impairments would be able to use the school bells.
There was 2 possible parts of this solution each individually would work as a solution for the design problem, but each has its own draw backs if implemented separately. The visual indicator of a glowing sign over school doors would be a great visual indicator but would exclude the visually impaired, and not be a sufficient alert if the student is not looking at the lights. Also this would have a significant implementation cost to school which could be a barrier for the adoption of this solution.
The other possible solution of a mobile/smartwatch would fix the issue of the other design by having a haptic alert, and not having any physical equipment needing to be installed in the schools; but it would require that the students have their own personal devices which would add a personal barrier to the functions. In conjunction the 2 aspects of this design solution would successfully mitigate the exclusionary aspects of the original design by including a way for those with hearing impairments to participate in the use of the school bells. Additionally, it is done in a way that is an improvement universally, so using this design solution would not single out those using it.
