Wilfrid Laurier University
IN-26: Innovation C

Sustainability Through an Inclusive Lens (STIL), a Laurier student led project, is a comprehensive retrofit system which enables and empowers individuals with vision loss, and those with other abilities, to independently and effectively identify when they are in the vicinity of a waste and recycling container, and how to properly sort their waste once there.
Positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:
• The inability of individuals with vision loss to properly dispose of their waste in public spaces has been identified as annoying, unnecessary, unsanitary, undignified, etc. By adapting waste and recycling containers within public spaces to become more accessible and inclusive for all (regardless of abilities or disabilities) STIL acts as an enabling and empowering device, as it signifies the value of investing in community members who are often marginalized or stigmatized. Additionally, it engages a population which had previously been excluded to actively participate and contribute to proper waste disposal, thereby increasing the community’s overall impact and desire to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
• In addition to enabling those with vision loss to effectively and independently dispose of their waste in public spaces, my research and prototype testing has demonstrated that STIL also acts an effective tool for sighted individuals to dispose of their waste. Many individuals have their heads down (e.g. looking at their phones) when they are walking. STIL acquires their attention when they interact with it (i.e. walking over it) and notifies them that they are in the vicinity of a waste an recycling container.