July 2024
- All streams’ (Vision, hearing, cognitive and persons using assistive devices) data have been collected, and we are currently summarizing the findings.
- Data has been collected with Chinese older adults and the tool has been translated into Farsi, and data collection with Farsi older adults will begin in June.
- Our team has been doing ongoing knowledge mobilization through individualized findings reports to cities (Richmond and Burnaby), publications and conference presentations. We continue our efforts in this area through KM tool development -digital storytelling video for City of Burnaby and journal articles (e.g., article for a Special issue of Disability and Society, SWAN protocol paper).
- GERO 840: The “Developing Inclusive Urban Streetscape” course was offered as a graduate course in Gerontology during the spring of 2024. In this course, students (including three MAP SFU team members) reviewed the City of Vancouver’s policies and guidelines on sidewalks to identify gaps and contextualize the role of sidewalk within the wider policy arena. Additionally, the students conducted a literature review to understand the essential aspects of a functional sidewalk. Lived experience data was collected using SWAN tool to gain insight on daily experiences of barrier and facilitators to mobility and access. We also interviewed city staff to incorporate the perspectives of other stakeholders and planners. Our findings were compiled into a report and presented to the City of Vancouver. A presentation video was developed as a knowledge mobilization tool, featuring quotes from interviews as well as contextual data on sidewalk maintenance and rehabilitation
February 2024
Data collection completed (in five municipalities: Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby and Surrey):
- MAT users (SWAN Mobility): 24 participants
- SWAN Vision: 10 participants (Tentative plan -collect additional data with 2-4 more participants)
- cSWAN Dementia (MCI and early stage of dementia): 10 participants
- SWAN Hearing: 10 participants.
- Additionally, we are also collecting SWAN data on older adults from two ethnic groups: SWAN Chinese: 10 participants (Cantonese and Mandarin speaking) from Richmond, Burnaby and Vancouver in complete. We are translating the tool into Farsi (Persian) and we will collect data with Persian-speaking older adults in North Vancouver and Burnaby in Apr. and May 2024.
- Currently, we are in the final stages of data analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data across the completed SWAN streams. Knowledge mobilization has been ongoing in our project as we a following an integrated KM framework. Currently, as our data collection is coming to end for this phase of the project, we have started end-of-project knowledge mobilization (KM) activities.
SWAN KM: The goal of knowledge mobilization activities in the SWAN project is to disseminate research findings to different stakeholders and foster collaboration between academia and community partners. Following is a list of the KM activities we have engaged in and plan to engage in the in Spring and Summer of 2024.
1) Report to specific municipalities in Metro Vancouver to inform policy and practice.
a) Reported on SWAN Dementia findings to City of Richmond. Preparing report for all streams of data collection for Richmond. Target to complete report: End of Spring 2024
b) Prepared and submitted report on findings from all streams for City of Burnaby.
c) Under preparation report for City of Vancouver.
d) We have limited data from City of Surrey, so currently not preparing any report for them.
e) We will prepare report for City of North Van. after the data collection and analysis is completed for the Persian speaking older adults.
2) Video Production (digital story-telling): Received funding from Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI) at SFU and and FASS Kickstarter Seed Grant [in collaboration with Civic Innovation Lab (CIL)] to develop a video City of Burnaby findings. This video will complement the ‘On the Move’ video series developed previously for the Cities of Vancouver, North Vancouver and New Westminster. After the video production is completed in early Summer 2024, this knowledge mobilization tool will be used in engagement sessions with City of Burnaby citizens and community organizations in the form of a community forum.
3) We did a presentation on the community-engaged research and knowledge mobilization aspects of the MAP-SWAN project at SFU’s MobilizeU workshop in February 2024. This presentation was done jointly with lived expertise partner Heather McCain.
4) Presentation of findings based on SWAN data was done to the Access Advisory Committee at COB.
5) Abstracts submitted for conference presentations: a) Environment Design Research Association (EDRA) Annual conference in Portland, OR (June, 2024); b) Abstract submission to Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual conference in Seattle, WA (Nov. 2024).
6) Journal articles published and under preparation: Scoping review on built environment and vision related disability titled Influence of the built environment on community mobility of people living with visual disabilities: A scoping review (Setharaman et al., 2024) was published in Urban, Planning and Transport Research. The SWAN Protocol paper is under preparation will be submitted to the Social Science Protocols in March 2024. The SWAN validity and reliability paper under development will be submitted to the special issue of the journal “Disabilities” at the end of March. These KM activities collectively reflect a strategic and comprehensive approach to knowledge mobilization, encompassing various forms of engagement and dissemination to maximize impact and relevance in both academic and practical domains.
7) Special Topics Course: GERO 840: Developing Inclusive Urban Streetscape is being offered in Gerontology as a graduate course. Three of our MAP-SFU team RAs are taking this course. It is an experiential learning based applied course in collaboration with the City of Vancouver and City Studio. This course draws from SWAN findings in City of Vancouver to develop a report on sidewalk rehabilitation to foster mobility for diverse groups of residents in the City of Vancouver.