Problem

While there is a huge amount of knowledge available through books, journals, and other documents, many people are not able to access these resources due to disabilities they may have. The lack of access to these resources is another obstacle making it more difficult for people with disabilities to find successful careers.

Solution

We worked with InclusiveStem to build a scalable, accessible online library called Incskill. Incskill Library is one of the largest online libraries that aims to provide people with disabilities with accessible information. The goal of this library is to provide easy, fast, and accessible reading materials for people with needs. 

It allows users to search, download, and request reading materials from authorized organizations and administrators. It enables organizations to manage users, fulfill user requests, and upload files for the library. It gives the administrators access to systematically manage users and organizations.

Design

With an emphasis on accessibility, we strongly focus on seeking feedback from professionals, our target audience, and stakeholders. This allows us to iterate and improve, ensuring the product's reliability and creating a clean, straightforward experience for all users.

We aim to create one of the largest online accessible libraries, simplifying the process of searching for books and requesting downloads. We ensure accountability for all action items from both users' and administrators' perspectives, providing clear instructions and guidelines to navigate the complex library process.

Tech Stack

The InclusiveStem library is a web application that is built with a React frontend and NodeJS backend. On the frontend we also utilize ChakraUI, an accessible UI component library. We used MongoDB to store most of the data on our application as well as Firebase Auth to manage authentication. We integrated many AWS services including SES, Lambda, S3, and EC2.

Features

Verification Flow

We needed to ensure that only people with disabilities and verified nonprofits could access our platform. As such, we allow users and organizations to submit verification requests. Once approved by InclusiveStem or another organization, they can access the rest of the platform.

Book Uploading

We support both uploading books one at a time and in bulk. Additionally, each book needs data manually filled in (title, author, summary). To ensure we could handle uploads of up to 500 books at a time, we utilized AWS Lambda and S3.

Library

Users can see books on the platform as well as search for specific books. Once users find a book, they can choose to see more information about it. From there, they can download the book in various formats.