High school project idea · Technology & AI
Use technology to remove one specific barrier instead of building a vague solution “for everyone.”
Research a real accessibility need and co-design a focused digital or physical technology prototype with dignity, usability, and maintenance in mind.
Why this project matters
Research a real accessibility need and co-design a focused digital or physical technology prototype with dignity, usability, and maintenance in mind. This project feels different from a school assignment because the student serves people experiencing a specific access barrier and those who support the context, creates something visible, tests it honestly, responds to feedback, and explains the decisions behind the final result.
What you will create
Use these deliverables as milestones for Prototype Tech for Accessibility. Adapt the details to your interests, available time, and real-world opportunities.
Research lived experience, task and context, existing strategies, co-design, interoperability, reliability, privacy, affordability, stigma, and support. Document the needs, constraints, credible sources, and perspectives of people experiencing a specific access barrier and those who support the context.
Turn the evidence into a focused plan for the accessible technology prototype and co-design case study, including success criteria, ethical boundaries, scope, and a realistic path to completion.
Create the first complete version of the accessible technology prototype and co-design case study. Include a barrier and context brief, existing-solution review, co-design findings, requirements, working prototype, accessibility test, maintenance plan, and limits.
test with consenting users or qualified accessibility reviewers, prioritize observed barriers over assumptions, and document unresolved risks Record what happened, what failed, what users or reviewers said, and which changes you made.
Publish the final accessible technology prototype and co-design case study with a portfolio-ready case study showing the challenge, evidence, process, revisions, results, limits, and next version.
Make the work stronger
For Prototype Tech for Accessibility, use these checkpoints to protect the quality of the work without turning the project into a performance for admissions.
Skills you can build
College application value
Can demonstrate initiative, curiosity, reflection, and growth through the student’s choices, response to setbacks, work with people experiencing a specific access barrier and those who support the context, and development of Assistive Technology, Co-Design, and Usability Testing.
The goal of Prototype Tech for Accessibility is not to manufacture an impressive activity. Do real work, keep evidence of the process, and reflect honestly on what changed.
Related college majors
Use Prototype Tech for Accessibility as a clue, then open a related major guide to compare coursework, career directions, reality checks, and other ways to test the field.
Apply engineering to the human body, medical technology, and the hard problem of making devices work safely in real biological systems.
Study how people speak, understand, hear, and communicate.
Design instruction and support around how individual students learn.
Prototype Tech for Accessibility is an original Compass educational starting point designed around real work, visible evidence, feedback, and reflection. It is not an admissions guarantee.