Collaboration by Suhartono from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)
Community-University Engagement
Public Libraries and Accessibility: Community Action for Inclusive Spaces
In 2022, the Government of British Columbia (BC) enacted its commitment to the Accessible British Columbia Act (ABCA) (assented June 17, 2021), in which libraries must have responded to regulations in 2023 by striking a committee and establishing an accessibility plan. This community-led partnership between Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) and the Collaborative + Experimental Ethnography Lab (CE2 Lab) at UBC, Okanagan (UBCO) is aimed at using qualitative research to advance the ORL’s capacity to address and respond to accessibility mandates and meet the goals of their accessibility plan through local research that will inform their actions. With UBCO researcher, Dr. Fiona P. McDonald, we will produce an open access Accessibility Audit Tool that will provide guidelines for best practices about what it means to create and support accessible libraries by evaluating their current physical spaces, services, and programs. The Accessibility Audit Tool will help libraries set priorities for improvements that align with the mandates of the ABCA, which established a legal framework to identify, remove, and prevent barriers to the full and equal participation of people with disabilities in BC.
RESEARCH TEAM
Fiona P. McDonald, CE2 Lab Director, Assistant Professor, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Tara Thompson, Community Engagement Coordinator, Okanagan Regional Library
Christine McPhee, Christine McPhee, Director of Public Services, Okanagan Regional Library
