BY: Chris Bayne
PURPOSE
To promote design changes and to make navigation of T.R.U’s campus inclusively designed for all users.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
To introduce new ideas to create ease of navigation around campus for the disabled, visually- impaired, families with strollers and/or small children and the aging population. A universal, all inclusive design that would help eliminate the exclusion and barriers for these people that go unnoticed by the general population on a daily basis.
STATEMENT
Thompson Rivers University’s campus has noticeable issues regarding handicap accessibility. Several changes need to be implemented to make it completely accessible for people that have navigation challenges. An “Inclusive Design” would upgrade the campus and bring it up to today’s progressive model and design standards. These changes will make all forms of travel to any area of the campus easier for everyone that enters T.R.U. including students, faculty and visitors. At present there are barriers and obstacles that tend to create a form of segregation that must be avoided in all future designs.
METHODOLOGY
Blog, data band through professional companies and organizations, library research and personal experience.
DISSEMINATION
Written report
EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Student Liaison for disabled students at T.R.U.
CONTRIBUTION TO MY ACADEMIC GOALS
I am enrolled in the A.R.E.T. program at Thompson Rivers University. As a paraplegic myself, I have encountered many obstacles and barriers during my daily travels from building to building and throughout all public areas around T.R.U.’s campus. These not only pose a danger and threat to my health and safety, but also prevent me from participating, accessing and being involved in many activities on campus that the rest of the student population enjoy and utilize. Easier access to all areas would make my daily routine much easier, allow for better time management and provide a much more pleasant experience if they were improved upon. It is my desire to remove, eliminate and/or improve upon these problem areas and help to create a modern user friendly campus that would make everyone’s daily routines easier, eliminate that wasted time and create and better overall environment for everyone using these facilities.
It is my desire to use the education that I am gaining through this program, and put it to good use by helping to create an easier, safer, and “inclusive” world for people with disadvantages and disabilities.
I congratulate you for open up your blog.
ReplyDeletelooking forward to see more about your inclusive design.
So Chris, what kinds of proposed changes would you like to see around the campus to make it more "wheelchair friendly"?
ReplyDeleteHi Chad. Well Inclusive-design is not just wheelchair friendly, its an overall design concept that incorporates all users. From Handicap to elderly, to people using shopping carts or strollers. So basically I would like to see a lot of flat or properly ramped areas. Tru is a very tough location with all the hills to deal with these issues, but I think there are ways to accomplish these goals in the future.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting KamJPN. Feel free to leave any comments, I could use all the ideas and questions you have to offer.
ReplyDeleteWill you be looking at how the interior of a building should be improved for "inclusive design." or just exteriors. For instance the science building doesn't have a very accessible elevator does it?
ReplyDeleteHey Chris, Why do you think that accessibility to the tournament capital center from the campus was never addressed when they constructed it just a few years ago? Did somebody just decide that it was not important, or was there just a lack of communication between the university, the architect, and the civil engineer? I think that rectifying this issue should be on the top of the university's list to fix before any green walls should be built.
ReplyDeleteRob, Im not sure why they havent thought of the rest of campus connectivity? Perhaps the campus architects and the city architects didnt agree on certain options. I almost think the government should come in and find solutions for problems here and correct the issues for the flaws they overlooked in the design/construction phases of these projects. Perhaps there wasnt enough funding? Perhaps they ran out of time? Perhaps it wasnt ethetically viable for their project? Id have to ask the Architect on those projects what the deciding factors were in their final outcomes. Good question Rob. Thank you.
ReplyDelete