AllAccess

Human Space partnered with the Canadian Urban Institute to deliver AllAccess, a research and education project dedicated to making Ontario’s public spaces more accessible, made possible through the Province of Ontario’s EnAbling Change Program.

The goals of the project were to help city builders better understand and implement the built environment design requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, captured under the Design of Public Spaces Standard (DoPS), and to provide information to the province on what is needed to support practitioners in working for a more accessible Ontario. The program was geared towards everyone in the design and development of public space, such as architects, landscape architects, planners, designers, and property owners.

The Human Space team developed and executed all-day workshops held in Aurora, Oakville, and Toronto, beginning with classroom-style review of DoPS, followed by on-site audits, and closing with group discussions that linked the day's classroom learning to the experiential parts of the day. Throughout the workshop, participants were joined by advocates and professionals with lived experience of disability to get more insight into how design decisions impact people with disabilities and to push the conversation beyond the requirements as they are presented in the legislation.

Human Space also acted as a resource to CUI by ensuring document accessibility of their final report to the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility, and also assisted with compiling a toolkit of resources now publicly available to city builders.

Visit allaccesspublicspace.ca to learn more and access great resources related to DoPS.