Enable Montreal
A design challenge to co-create solutions for a more accessible and inclusive city.
March-June 2018
What is Enable Montreal
Enable Montreal is a non-competitive design challenge that seeks innovative solutions to make Montreal more accessible and inclusive for people living with physical disabilities.
How the project works
Enable Montreal assembled teams which includes engaged community members, students, researchers, activists, engineers and design professionals. Teams are working together to develop concrete solutions to accessibility barriers that have been previously identified through consultation with community organizations and people living with disabilities.
What participants do
Participant teams are asked to attend twelve organized activities, during the project’s three-month period (March 9 – June 8). Teams meet outside those designated times to work independently on their proposed solution.
Remuneration
Participants have access to support funding; $32,000 divided equally amongst participating teams.
Project finale
Participants present a final presentation. The solutions with the most potential for positive impact will receive continued support from the city’s Maison de l’innovation sociale.
More Information
The Participant Guide has been amended.
Project phases
Knowledge Exchange
Participants attend a series of workshops and activities that address broad themes including:
- accessibility
- disability rights
- social justice
- design thinking
- team dynamics
- research tools
Research
Each team explores their mandate more deeply through interviews with relevant community groups, the review of related materials and an environmental assessment.
Design & prototyping
Teams start designing and prototyping potential solutions and present their findings to key stakeholders.
Presentations
Teams refine their proposed solutions and present their ideas at the closing vernissage.
June-October 2018
Project implementation
Our accessibility commitments
Recognizing the many details that make an event truly accessible, the Enable Montreal Coordination Team is working to ensure everyone's physical, communication, sensory, interactive, and food accessibility needs are met.
Support for participants
Enable Montreal is an experimental project, and we are here to support our participants.
Our partners
The coordination of Enable Montreal is led by Concordia University through the Office of Community Engagement, in collaboration with SHIFT – Concordia’s Social Innovation Hub – and our four main partners:
Steering Committee
Patrick Dubé, Co-General Director, Maison de l’Innovation Sociale
Anna Ehrhardt, Director of Administration & Academic Relations,
District 3 Innovation Hub
Jessica Cacciatore, Employment counselor, Independent Living
Kim Sawchuck, Professor, Critical Disability Studies Working Group
