Group Members: Caden O’Rourke, Angel Alvarez, Zam Cing, Jowan al Hejami, Kuang Lin, Timothy Chow, and Everett Keltto.
(Click on the image, above, to move through the slides.)
One of the most important elements of society is information. You need information in order to function properly within society, as well as to interpret society, and to navigate your own personal life. However, many people face restrictions that limit their access to necessary information, which is why our group chose it as our focus issue.
When researching this issue, we found that it had three root causes. One is language barriers (OASH, 2022). Many people can’t access documents because they don’t speak the language in them. Two is disability (Perrin, 2021). Many people can’t access information due to blindness or (in the case of audio files) deafness. Three, many people simply cannot afford access to information (Randel, 2013). For example, some people can’t afford web access to certain websites or to purchase certain expensive books, such as books required for schooling.
The solution criteria for the Small Wins group project is that it must be the achievement of a goal or task consistent with the definition of a group from our text. That is, the project includes three or more persons interacting who both influence and are influenced by one another. (Rothwell, 2019, p. 24). The Small Wins project must include a community service component, with our group determining what is both our “community” and who is being “served.” However, the project must have an actionable activity that is conducted by all the members.
Further, the project must be accomplished within the provided timeline of four weeks, along with required documentation and support as described in the assignment.
Lastly, the project needs to be consistent with Green River College’s guidelines for the safety and security of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to find solutions that met our criteria, we held a group brainstorming session, which resulted in a plethora of good ideas, such as running a book drive, home economics/life skills tutoring, creating and distributing infographics detailing how to get a library card, and Smithsonian document transcribing, among others. At the end of the session we examined each one of these ideas thoroughly to find which one we thought would work best.
We chose to focus on Smithsonian document transcribing for our project, because (unlike the others) it allows us to help with all the root causes of the issue. By digitizing important historical documents we make them more accessible to the disabled, since blind individuals can convert their text to audio, and deaf individuals can read subtitles that have been transcribed for videos. Digitizing documents also allows them to be easily, and quickly translated across all languages, with the use of technology such as Google Translate. Finally, as a public institution, the documents we transcribe are available to all members of the public, no matter their financial status.
After choosing our solution, we each signed up to transcribe documents for the Smithsonian through their digital volunteer portal. After that, we watched the tutorial video provided and began our work individually. We set a quota, stating that each individual needed to transcribe a total of three documents per week, for three weeks in a row. We made sure to check in with each other weekly during our group meetings.
In the end, our collective efforts totaled 63 pages of transcribed and digitized historical documents, and (along with other volunteers) we helped fully transcribe three separate books: Freedomways, Vol. 12, No. 1 an issue of one of the most influential African American cultural journals throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and Germain Seligman Correspondence, 1953 and Germain Seligman Correspondence, 1957 a series of letters from Germain Seligman, who helped recover stolen nazi artwork after World War 2. Our efforts were successful in preserving these documents and making them more accessible to a significant portion of the populace.
Our only issue throughout this project was communication. We agree that if there was anything we would have changed it would be using a different communication platform, instead of Discord, that members were more familiar with, and that would have been better at alerting members about messages. However, this was a minor issue, and it had no massive effect on our productivity, largely because any communication issues we did have were quickly sorted out in person, either at our weekly meeting or in class. Overall, this project was a very fun, fulfilling, and educational experience.
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). (2022, October 6). HHS takes action to break language barriers. HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/10/06/hhs-takes-action-break-language-barriers.html
Perrin, A. (2021, September 10). Americans with disabilities less likely than those without to own some digital devices. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/10/americans-with-disabilities-less-likely-than-those-without-to-own-some-digital-devices/
Randel, J. (2013, January 18). Why access to information needs to be central to the debate on poverty. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jan/18/mdgs-poverty-eradication-information-access
Rothwell, J.D. (2019). In mixed company: Communicating in small groups and teams (10th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Leave a Reply