People with higher levels of education are more likely to be healthier and live longer. One of the primary goals of the fifth iteration of the Healthy People initiative, Healthy People 2030, is to provide high-quality educational opportunities for children and adolescents around the world. In order to do our part in promoting the initiative, team NJMU-China 2022 organized four online and offline programs in the Red Star Primary school of Henan, the Duanwan Primary School of Henan, and the Dahezhen Primary school of Shaanxi.

We learned from educators in different provinces that students in inland areas in our country generally have less access to those newer branches of science. It is, therefore, worthwhile to bring synthetic biology and other subsets of science to them and reveal the beauty of these subjects. In our summer program, we aimed to reveal the beauty of science to students there and encourage them to keep on exploring. Moreover, we kept in close contact with them after the summer program so that we could answer their questions in time and provide follow-up support both academically and financially.

With the support of our advisor and the educators in these three schools, we were able to engage over 120 students of various ethnic groups.

Additionally, studies have shown that autistic children in rural areas of the country are more likely to end up in mainstream schools with little or no additional support. Although it is essential for autistic children to interact with their neurotypical peers, many of them may end up being rejected or even bullied due to mainstreaming. We believed that mainstreaming should be considered based on the child instead of the diagnosis but were sadly unable to alter the situation. As a result, we decided to help out elsewhere. In one of our discussions, we sorted out the benefits and disadvantages of this kind of inclusion and identified a part where we get to intervene.

Summary of our discussion

Although women now make up about 47% of the total workforce, they remain statistically underrepresented in STEM. Recognizing the issue was the foundation for our work in encouraging more females to be a part of the movement to increase female representation in STEM. This is considered an essential aspect of inclusivity since it bridges the gap between social justice and the academic field.

This year, we translated related discussions and theories to action by sharing inspiring quotes from women in STEM during the “Take one, give one” sanitary towel sharing movement. We collected 100 empowering quotes from books, lectures, and reviews and printed them on the containers of sanitary towels and tampons. Even though we couldn't empower and inspire females by offering them actual opportunities, we were able to provide emotional support for most of the viewers. We believe that the power of words is boundless.

Our team attending the conference on mitochondria

Our team member attending the “Take one, give one” activity

In 2010 there were 285 million visually impaired people in the world, 39 million of whom were blind. In 2021, at least 2.2 billion people globally had a near or distant vision impairment. In order to make our website more accessible to the visually impaired, we referred to some literature, browsed through open blogs by the visually impaired, and looked at guidelines from different countries and regions. Based on the obtained information, we made adjustments in two aspects: screen reader-friendliness and general accessibility.

Blind people generally use screen readers to access web content. A screen reader is a type of assistive technology that allows blind web users to access the content of a page with either a speech synthesizer or a braille display. However, some web content may not be accessible to screen readers if built improperly. Since certain design considerations can make a blind person's web user experience much easier, we made the following adjustments to our website.

✔Keyboard navigation:

Most blind people are physically able to use a mouse or trackpad. That doesn't mean, however, that they can tell where the mouse is moving or pointing and control the movement. Recognizing this problem, we set up our wiki to allow for keyboard navigation. Basically, blind people can browse through the pages through the Tab, and Shift+Tab buttons and press Enter to visit the labels and links.

✔Hierarchical Structure:

Due to the fact that many screen readers pull up the headings when navigating through the page, we made sure that we have proper tags for the contents in our wiki. For example, we added < h1 >, < h2 >, < h3 >, and < h4 > for each of our headings, making them clearer and more detectable to screen readers.

✔Picture Descriptions:

Blind people are not able to view the pictures with their own eyes. As a result, we added descriptions to each figure in our wiki. In this way, they would be able to imagine what each picture is about.

✔The “view larger” option:

People with visual impairment can suffer visual fatigue when viewing smaller pictures. Therefore, we added a “view larger” option to every picture included in our wiki. The option would come in handy if someone wants to view a larger version of the image since that can be achieved with a click.

Apart from blind people, people with other visual impairments or even those without impairments may find a website tiring to read due to fonts, colors, or arrangements. Based on this fact, we built our wiki to be as clear and user-friendly as possible. Here are our considerations.

✔Color contrast:

The Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.0 AA requirements state a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for the text. We ensured that we met this requirement by using a dark color for the text and a relatively light background to make the pages easier to read for color-blind users. Taking aesthetics into account, we arranged our ratio to be 4.7:1.

✔Manual font size adjustment:

Font size is one of the most common issues with web accessibility for partially sighted people. We believed that there is no best font size and designed an adaptive button where users can manually adjust font size. Users can change the default font size by dragging the square horizontally.

Our manual font size adjustment system

✔Prioritizing important information:

Besides bold headers, we also thickened certain words, phrases, or sentences that we found important. In this way, viewers can understand our implications more easily.

Another major step in building an inclusive web is making the content accessible to people with reading disabilities. In the beginning, however, we were unsure whether this was even possible. Therefore, we consulted our advisor, Professor Xingyin Liu, who referred us to the official website of the British Dyslexia Association. The association provided a number of guidelines for web developers to adhere to, which was of great help to our team. As we learned more about reading impairments, we realized that while many people with impairments such as dyslexia could still find online text challenging at times, certain changes can make it much easier for some to read and enjoy. We believe that it is all about making the world more accessible one page at a time, and although some people may not consider these changes to make that much of a difference, there are those who find them absolutely invaluable.

With this in mind, we applied the following strategies to make our wiki more accessible and inclusive for people with dyslexia and other reading disabilities.

We designed our wiki to be adaptive to browsers on both computers and mobile phones. Since mobiles are smaller and generally more portable, we consider them a helpful addition to the inclusivity of our wiki. With alterations in fonts and layouts to better fit screen readers, viewers can browse the wiki using their phones only. Moreover, we made a responsive navigation bar to accommodate the browsing mode on a mobile phone and tested it within the team.

The mobile version of our wiki navigation

Additionally, every PDF document in our wiki is available in two forms: direct access and large screen preview on a new page. The documents can also be downloaded for further reference.

PDF viewing options

Educational materials are essential to the inclusivity of all our educational activities. We wanted to design our materials to be accurate and understandable at the same time. To achieve that, we altered the materials based on our target audiences and varied the form of the delivery of our message. By consulting educators and caregivers, we devised five ways of delivering information: lectures, role-playing, picture books, art exhibitions, and puzzles. This is discussed more specifically in the Education and Communication section of our wiki.

lectures

role-playing

picture books

art exhibitions

puzzles

We built a team with a fair split of males and females from different majors in our university. In this way, we could approach synthetic biology from different angles. We also come from different areas of the country and are of different ethnic groups. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are involved as well. This is another demonstration of the inclusivity of science itself. We believe that, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, or background, everyone can seek a place in science if they would like to.

As a major inclusivity aspect of our project, we paid much attention to supporting people with ASD. We figured that when we talk about autistic people, we cannot just focus on children with the disorder. Although most articles and images focus on young children when it comes to autism, autism in adults should never be overlooked since ASD is not a disorder that people get to grow out of. Those with the condition, like everyone else, are adults for much longer than they are kids and face lifelong challenges. Therefore, we conducted our activities with two main objectives: reaching out to children with ASD and supporting adults with ASD.

We were fortunate to get the opportunity to help autistic children ourselves during our community service at Star of the Sea Children Development Center, a non-profit rehabilitation organization that provides professional assessment, rehabilitation training, early education, and support for children with autism. Besides a week there in March, we spent another two weeks at the institution during summer break. In our 80 hours there with educators, parents, and autistic children, we were able toprovide support both technically and emotionally. Details of our voluntary work are discussed in the Integrated Human Practice section and also in the Education and Communication section.

Meanwhile, we got in contact with Wanyan, a twin sister of an autistic adult. She agreed to participate in our interview and shared with us real stories of her older sister. According to her, one of the problems that many autistic adults face is social adjustment. Many adults, including her sister, are unable to manage typical living situations or jobs successfully. The content of the interview is accessible in the Integrated Human Practice section.

Based on the interview, we decided to first educate more people on ASD and then establish a community for adults with ASD. Specifically, we held lectures and online programs on ASD and made a picture book about the condition as well, the exact content of which is available in the Education and Communication section. We also built an online platform where autistic adults, their families, and social workers can share their stories and problems and support one another. The platform is accessible on our WeChat official account (@ NJMU iGEM) as well.

The online platform for autistic adults

NOTE: The content of the blogs will not be revealed here due to privacy concerns.

Besides people with ASD, we also reached out to people with other neurological disorders such as ADHD, conduct disorders, and learning disorders. In our city of Nanjing, many organisms have been established for people with neurodevelopmental disorders. We contacted several organizations and decided to help by offering scientific suggestions, providing financial assistance, and calling for broader support from the public.

Up until now, we have kept in close contact with educators and social workers from 5 organizations. We shared our understanding of the therapeutic approaches to different disorders from a medical perspective and our suggestions for the daily caring of patients with these conditions. We also tried to sell the team merchandise on the We Business platform and donated the money to non-profitable organizations for people with all kinds of neurological disorders. Moreover, in many of our lectures, supporting and respecting people with these disorders was emphasized. We hope that with our effort, more people will join us in helping people with neurological conditions in their own ways.

Our We Business Shop