Accessible changing station opens at KPU Surrey
The changing station is located on the first floor of the Fir building in a gender-neutral washroom
An accessible changing station is open in the Fir building at the KPU campus. (KPU press release)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s first gender-neutral accessible changing station has opened on the first floor of the Fir building at Surrey campus.
The station, incorporated in an existing washroom, has a size-adjustable change table and a ceiling lift to move users to the toilet or the changing table.
Dr. Fiona Whittington-Walsh is KPU’s lead advisor on disability, accessibility, and inclusion and spearheaded the project when she learned a student was starting at the university this semester who required a changing station. Her, Iain Hunter, and Herman Ho from KPU facilities toured the Surrey campus to find the right space.
“It came from the need of one student, but … this is going to benefit more than just one student. It sends the message that KPU is a welcoming and accessible space for everyone,” she says.
“It really [gives] that student that sense of belonging,” she says. “When you’re starting and there is a space you can definitely utilize, it really makes you feel that you belong … and it’s an incredible space.”
There is one accessible change room in Canada at Kinsight Community Society in Port Moody that is registered to the map on Changing Places International, a not-for-profit organization with the goal to install and promote understanding of changing places and hygiene rooms. KPU’s accessible change station is the first at a post-secondary institution in the Lower Mainland.
“Being an individual that relies upon having these types of facilities and how it limits your ability to navigate the world around you and your community because you’d have to go all the way home to get any kind of assistance,” Whittington-Walsh says.
The Accessible British Columbia Act went into effect Sept. 1, requiring over 750 public sector organizations to establish an accessibility committee and action plan ready for September 2023 with feedback from the community.
Whittington-Walsh says it’s important to have accessibility facilities so that everyone has a sense of belonging on campus, including faculty and staff.
“We now can provide this type of support that is really lacking in other areas of our social world,” she says.
The washroom equipped with the changing station is also a gender-neutral space, a pivotal aspect of its inclusiveness.
While the changing facility is now open to the public, the team is still working to create fully accessible signage to divulge the space and ensure everyone knows they can use it.
There isn’t any prospect of building more accessible changing stations on other campuses or other locations on the Surrey campus. Whittington-Walsh says if she is a part of the accessibility committee, she will make sure accessible changing stations are part of the action plan.
“There are people here at KPU that are willing to try to make sure that the supports you require are available,” she says.
