As kids head back to school, it is the season for signing up for various programs around the City. My husband and I decided to enroll our 6-year old daughter in a swim program.

The City of Toronto offers three different ways to enroll for their programs:

1) stand in line at 7 AM

2) phone in

3) online

We were told that the “best way” to enroll was to stand in line at 7 AM, for the first-come-first-serve opportunity. Once the spaces fill up, you’re out of luck. So we planned on lining up at 7 AM on Wednesday – until late on Tuesday night we decided that was not an option. My husband had hurt his ankle and so we planned on enrolling online early the next day.

So the next day, we started to use the web form. It didn’t work. We kept trying. Nothing.

Next, we tried the phone and had repeated busy signals.

We tried faxing – no go.

We finally heard a message on the phone, saying, in effect, that the City of Toronto is equitable in that the system does not favor the phone or the internet. So we heard that message again: that it was better to stand and wait in line.

I thought to myself: Why even offer the phone or the internet if the only channel that seems equitable is in-person? Why bother offering services that basically don’t work when it matters?

The City sends the message that the in-person channel is the most equitable one, but is that true?
- Is it fair to assume that those with access to the internet and phone are more affluent than those who can enroll in person? What is the demographic of those without internet/phone these days?
- What about those who are house-bound, or is a single-parent, or even temporarily or permanently disabled? The stand-in-line option might have just disqualified them from the service.
- What about those who can spare the time to line up for swimming at 7 AM? Perhaps a stay-at-home mom or dad? Is the solution favoring single-income families?
- What if that family has multiple children? How easy or difficult is it to ready three kids in the morning just to have the privilege of standing in line early in the morning? Perhaps get a babysitter while one partner is at work and the other waits in line? Carrying this even further, could it be the stay-at-home-mom standing in line, while the nanny is home with the three kids, all under the age of 10?

What is truly equitable? It is possible that in trying to be equitable, the system has actually discriminated against the vast majority of the population who would benefit from this service?

What is needed here is simple. We need to test our assumptions. One of the tools that may help us gain insight into designing for the enrollment experience is to interview those who were standing in line that day. Each person has a story. Interviewing a good sample of those will give us a good idea of what and where the problems are within the system. It is not meant to be scientific or statistically significant. Rather, the goal is to understand. A short video interview would be helpful to gather information as well as to deliver the message to those who can influence the design of the experience.

Posted in Opinions on September 28, 2009

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