Smartphone apps used for travel and navigation in the context of accessibility for disabled travelers is one of my biggest research passions. My interest in the topic began long time ago. In fact, my proposal for my doctoral study was on transportation-related apps and equity. During my first semester in the PhD program, I wrote a paper on transportation apps and disability for one of my courses. That evolved into a larger conference paper that I presented at a couple of conferences. The new publication, titled Transportation apps can help people with disabilities navigate public transit but accessibility lags behind, comes out of that paper. I enjoyed writing the piece for The Conversation very much, and I am happy to share it here!
One of the benefits of publishing in The Conversation is the wider audience to which it makes your writing available and that there is no paywall. Anyone with Internet can have access to it. According to my The Conversation dashboard, the article has almost 3,000 reads as of today (July 27, 2023) and is ranked #11 in readership numbers compared to other articles written by my colleagues (a total of 506) at my institution since 2018. I am so elated that readers are interested about disability topics!
My dashboard also shows me where readers are located. It is very interesting that almost half of the readership for the article comes from Ireland.
If you are an academic, especially an early career scholar, I highly recommend publishing in The Conversation. The impact of your work will be wider. Equally importantly, while your scholarly work moves through the peer review process at an excruciatingly slow process, this a great opportunity to get your work out. I know for myself, I will continue to publish with them for the above reasons as well as for the opportunity it provides me to write in a different style.
Mahtot [Mah-tote] Gebresselassie, PhD 