UpAble

UpAble is a web application designed to help users explore future career paths and upskill themselves with recommended certifications and resources.

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UpAble - Empowering Career Growth for People with Disabilities

Inspiration

Our inspiration for UpAble came from legislation in Turkey that requires businesses to employ a certain percentage of people with disabilities. We wanted to create a solution that not only supports individuals with disabilities in finding meaningful career opportunities but also helps them upskill and thrive in their chosen fields. By addressing the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the workforce, we aim to promote inclusivity and equal opportunities for all.

What Does Our Solution Do?

UpAble is a web application designed to help users explore future career paths and upskill themselves with personalized recommendations. The app provides:

  • Career Exploration: Users can input their current job and desired career to receive tailored recommendations.
  • Dyslexia-Friendly Font: A dyslexia-friendly font option ensures accessibility for users with dyslexia.
  • Chatbot: The app has an embedded chatbot that allows users to ask questions regarding their career path
  • Roadmap: A roadmap outputs links to courses that is suitable for the role chosen that may include certifications
  • Success Stories: Success stories from other users that includes access to message them as mentors for better support and network.

How We Built It

Frontend

  • React.js: For building the user interface.
  • React Router: For seamless navigation between pages.
  • Material-UI (MUI): For pre-built UI components and styling.
  • CSS: Custom styles for a cohesive design.
  • Vite: For fast development and build processes.

Backend

  • Node.js: For the server-side logic.
  • Express.js: For handling API requests.
  • Gemini API: For generating career suggestions and upskilling resources.

Font Integration

  • OpenDyslexic: We integrated the OpenDyslexic font to provide a dyslexia-friendly reading experience.

Development Process

  1. Ideation: We brainstormed ideas and identified the core features of the app.
  2. Implementation: Built the frontend and backend, integrating APIs and fonts.
  3. Testing: Conducted user testing to validate the app's functionality and accessibility.

Challenges We Faced

  1. Dyslexia Font Integration:

    • Initially, we faced issues loading the OpenDyslexic font due to incorrect file paths. After debugging, we resolved this by ensuring the font file was correctly placed and referenced.

  2. API Integration:

    • Integrating the Gemini API for career suggestions required careful handling of API keys and responses. We overcame this by implementing proper error handling and response parsing.

  3. Time restraint in a hackathon setting:

    • Creating the website within 24 hours, with only 8 hours being in person at the BCG office it was difficult to coordinate as most of the communication had to be arranged online. Went back and forth with how we envisioned the idea vs what was feasible.

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

  • Successfully integrating the OpenDyslexic font to make the app accessible to users with dyslexia.
  • Building a functional web app with personalized career recommendations in a short timeframe of 24 hours.
  • Proud of bonding with new teammates that we just met for this hackathon and are from a diverse background and experiences to gain different perspectives.

What We Learned

  • The importance of accessibility in web design and how small changes, like a dyslexia-friendly font, can make a big difference.
  • How to integrate third-party APIs like Gemini to enhance app functionality.
  • Taking into consideration of different accommodations such as making the brand logo complementary colours for people with visual impairment and dyslexic font.
  • Delegation of tasks is crucial

What’s Next?

Short-Term Improvements

  • Add more career paths and certifications to the database.
  • Implement user authentication to save progress and preferences.
  • Enhance the UI/UX with more user-friendly interface.
  • Learn PowerPoint shortcuts by heart to increase efficiency of making slides
  • Increase knowledge of Git and Github for better version control
  • Learn Figma to better prototype

Long-Term Vision

  • Expand the app to include job listings and networking opportunities.
  • Partner with organizations to provide scholarships for recommended certifications.
  • Scale the app to support multiple languages and regions.
  • Become equalizer in the neurodivergent community and help each other to achieve dreams.

Thank you for checking out UpAble! We hope our solution inspires more inclusivity and accessibility in the tech world. 🚀

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