DENMARK, IBA, Kolding: Inclusive by Design: Exploring GenAI and Accessibility

One of the participating students Dimitar Barev has written a nice article about the experiences of the International Week at IBA Kolding, Denmark.

Do you know what the perfect international experience looks like? Let me tell you!

The Choice
I am Dimitar – a software engineering student in my 6th semester. I have a younger brother who is keen on the idea of studying somewhere in Scandinavia (for those not familiar with geography, Scandinavia comprises Denmark, Sweden, and Norway). I had never been to any of the three countries, and while scrolling down the list of partner universities of Fontys, I was immediately drawn to this teeny tiny village in the middle of Denmark named Kolding. The program was called “Green UX/UI Design.” I signed up.

The Trip
Fast forward to the day my fellow university students and I began our trip to Denmark. We had decided to travel green – meaning we aimed to produce fewer emissions. That meant spending a solid 14 hours switching between 5 different trains with some layovers in cities across Germany (Germany is the only country between the Netherlands and Denmark, but it’s huge). Eventually, in the early morning, we arrived in Kolding.

The Place
It was such a sunny and peaceful environment when we stepped off the train. From the train station, we took a turn to the left and saw a big lake with an extremely calm surface, plenty of different birds, and people enjoying themselves around it. On a hill by the lake stood an authentic castle, and as we continued walking, we reached our hotel. I must mention that it was an extremely nice place with many amenities provided – including sports equipment, which was the one I was most interested in. We stayed in three-story houses with a cute terrace overlooking the lake.

The Program
The building of the International Business Academy was just a 10 to 15-minute walk from the hotel. I loved how invigorated I felt by this commute. It was a modern place – clean and well-kept, with very kind personnel who tried to teach us some Danish words. The design of the classrooms and the open workspaces around them could easily be compared to Fontys’.
The project in a nutshell:
We were divided into groups of 5 or 6 people. No one knew the others, and we were mostly from different countries and universities. The question was: How can we design a website that is appealing, inclusive, and eco-friendly? The more resources a website uses, the more CO₂ is produced. To explore this, we visited a research center and museum named Økolariet. It’s a place that provides children and their parents with exhibitions on sustainability, showing them how to take better care of the planet for future generations.
Our mission was to design a new exhibit to replace one that wasn’t interactive or attention-grabbing enough. It needed to be related to forest pollution. Many groups came up with ideas involving augmented reality, various lights, and screen games. In my group, we mainly created a prototype on Figma with the help of some image generation tools and the Photoshop skills of one teammate. Some others built paper prototypes or developed micro-games.

The People
One of the main perks of this week? The fact that we were three different study programs together – Green UX/UI Design (the one I attended), one related to business, and another to marketing. What did that mean for us? We were three times more people than a regular international week. There were people from 30 different countries, each with their own strengths, languages, and – best of all – an openness to connect.
I’ll just mention some of my favorite interactions, so I don’t make this paragraph too long. I did my running training with some incredibly clever guys from Iran. I practiced my Dutch with some very personable girls from Belgium. I danced bachata with the group from Guatemala, and I couldn’t resist grabbing a couple of shots with the boys from Latvia. The Danish students, on the other hand, showed us what their days usually looked like – what it feels like to be a student in Denmark and how they spend their free time. I gathered many great impressions to share with my younger brother.

The Special Features
I want to share two things that made a lot of sense to me at the IBA building.
Firstly, the buffet with warm, tasty food available at any time of the day. We were provided with breakfast and lunch on most days, which turned out to be way more satisfying than the expected sandwich many other institutions consider a lunch. The buffet also had many vegetarian options.
Secondly, there was a bar in the university. I’m serious. On the first floor of the building, there was a place where all the students could freely gather for a game of table soccer or chess, grab some beers or a round of shots (very low prices) from the bar, and socialize. I can’t forget how many people were playing beer pong there on the last evening of our stay.

TL;DR
Everyone presented twice. We visited a research center and museum, conducted research, and collaborated on co-creation. We had an official welcome presentation about Danish culture and additional sessions on Green UX/UI. At the end, everyone received a certificate for participating in this international experience.

Written by Dimitar Barev