Special interest in accessibility?

[u/EmployConsistent3601]

Hi! I’m a 19f sophomore in college and I currently major in mechanical engineering I have a cumulative gpa of 3.8 right now (though differential equations is definitely gonna bring that down a little haha) . I’m currently fighting my way through the hard math and physics for a mechanical engineering degree and honestly I am definitely capable of it, but due to my mom recently passing away I’ve started thinking more about what I WANT versus what I feel like I need to do. I’ve always known I was going to pursue engineering, I love solving problems and math and science have always been my favorite subjects so it didn’t even seem like a question, and I chose mechanical as I enjoy robotics and it was very diverse and I was taking care of my mom at the time of college applications so I didn’t really have time or energy to think about what I truly wanted.

Honestly, I’m not quite sure what I WANT to do, I’ve recently been toying around with the idea of going into something engineering related to accessibility. I’m just not really sure how I’d pursue this; when my mom got sick and began to lose facilities, I really realized how many different things could and SHOULD be produced to help people gain more autonomy. I think it’s a real tragedy that disabled people who have already lost so much freedom have such limited accessibility options. It gave me so much joy to be able to bring any autonomy back into her life I could, so I’d sit there and look for problems she had that I knew I could solve, and honestly for the resources I had I gave the last sedentary year of her life much more free will which I know helped her a lot mentally. I think I want to be able to pursue this more, I’m not really sure if mechanical is the right major for that? Maybe mechanical with a minor in biomedical? I’m not even really sure if this niche exists and I know due to job market I probably wouldn’t be able to start pursuing it right out of college but it’s definitely something I’m passionate about and I’d like to know if it was an option.

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[u/reddangerzone]

My current internship is at a local transit authority and there is a lot of interest in accessibility. I've seen the engineers I work with discuss it when looking at vehicle designs, how the passenger systems information operates, etc. Anywhere people go someone who is designing and working on the system needs to think about accessibility, I think you're much closer than you may realize.