UBC Universal Change Rooms
Creators: name: Ryan, Cheyenne
name: Penn, Maddison
name: Patterson, Nick
name: Barbieri, Ty
name: Holtan, Ty
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2019

description: The older population is not properly educated nor informed about the universal change rooms which is preventing inclusivity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and two spirit (LGBTQ2+) community (OK2bme, 2019). Therefore creating a barrier to their physical activity needs. With the addition of gender-neutral change rooms to the University of British Columbia (UBC) Aquatic Center and around the campus it’s important that the population is informed and aware of their purpose. Additionally making people feel more comfortable and willing to use them, with the end goal of encouraging and helping people be more physically active. The research examined on making campuses more physically active through the introduction of gender neutral change rooms were, the usage of signs to inform people about what change rooms are gender neutral, how other universities have introduced universal change rooms, and making campus more inclusive of transgender students. This information was used to help develop our survey, how to inform people about the gender-neutral change rooms, and the best approach to inform people about the change rooms. Through the survey there were four key findings: (1) Majority of the population is aware about change rooms; (2) Older population prefer gander specific change rooms; (3) The majority of people do not feel well informed about the universal change rooms and their purpose; (4) The signage needs to be more clear and concise. Through these findings we developed a few recommendations to help inform the population and make the change rooms more used and accepted. The first recommendation is to have more clear and concise signage; secondly we find it important that the staff of the UBC Aquatic Center is educated about the gender-neutral washrooms and the people who use them; thirdly we think it would be a good idea to incorporate bulletin boards around the aquatic center to post educational facts regarding the LGBTQ2+ community. Some limitations to our research is that the majority of people we surveyed were from an older population, we didn't not specifically survey anyone from the LGBTQ2+ community, also we could have surveyed people in other places around the campus and not specifically the aquatic center (OK2bme, 2019). This research project was completed in partnership with the University of British Columbia’s Social Ecological Economical Developmental Studies (SEEDS) program whom create partnerships on campus with students, staff and community partners to further impact change on campus through policy change (SEEDS, 2018). In respect to this project, we partnered with UBCs recreation department to analyse the impact of the universal change room initiative in the aquatic center 2 years post opening. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”