Collaborative & Experimental Ethnography Lab

Enabled Environment: Understanding Bathrooms as Sensory Inclusive Public Spaces

Enabled Environment: Understanding Bathrooms as Sensory Inclusive Public Spaces [UBCO REB STUDY #: H19-00118] is taking place because the Government of Canada has recently passed new legislation for the Accessible Canada Act that addresses the physical, social, and economic inequalities experienced by disabled individuals. This study focuses on the social realities of underrepresented, less visible, and sensory impairments to understand what is needed to create truly accessible and inclusive public spaces. The insight and experiences of community members who access the public library are essential to understand the sensory complexities and social realities of public bathrooms and spaces in the Okanagan. 

This project at the University of British Columbia | Okanagan Campus is part of an undergraduate research project by Madelaine Lekei. It is funded by the Irving K. Barber School of Arts & Science Undergraduate Research Award and is supervised by Dr. Fiona P. McDonald and Dr. Christine Schreyer (Community, Culture, Global Studies, at UBCO) and is carried out in collaboration with the Okanagan Regional Library.

Click on the image below to Open + download the Open Access community report

(Note: thE PDF VERSION of this report is designed to be friendly with assisted reading programs)

This report presents and synthesizes the original findings from these data and highlights three key recommendations to ORL in preparing for change as the Province of British Columbia has proposed its own legislation, Bill M219 Accessible Act, that responses to the Accessible Canada Act with a plan to be barrier-free province-wide by 2024.

Click On the video below to watch an original film, A Symphony of Automation (2019)

This short film (3mins) is a collaborative sound art work by Madelaine Lekei and Fiona P. McDonald. This film is inspired by the work of John Cage and the Fluxes movement and uses only automated fixtures—hand dryers, taps, soap dispenser, flushing toilets. This was produced to accompany public presentations of this research.

Warning: Some sounds may cause discomfort to those with sensory sensitivity. Please consider before viewing.

You are invited to perform this symphony in your own community. The original score is for a duet to be performed in public bathrooms with automatic fixtures:

• One Door (open and close)

• 2 Flushes

• One Door (open and close)

• 3 Pumps of the automatic soap dispenser

• 4 Triggers of automatic facet —2 seconds each

• Hand dryer 1 — 5 seconds

• Handryer 2 — 5 seconds

  Repeat

Click below to open the Research Poster (2019)

Presented at the Joint meetings of the American Anthropological Association Meetings (AAA)/Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) in Vancouver, Canada.