Burnaby Community Forum - Urban Accessibility: Promoting Inclusive Environments
On October 18th, a community forum on urban accessibility was held at the Bonsor Recreation Complex in Burnaby, BC. This event was organized by the MAP-SWAN team, Project Sidewalk, DemSCAPE, SFU Centre for Dialogue and SFU Civic Innovation Lab, in collaboration with Happy Cities.
The community forum consisted of a morning session featuring a World Café and an afternoon experiential Pop-Up Event. The World Café, a focused discussion group, brought together community stakeholders, researchers, and people with lived experience to engage in conversations about urban accessibility. In the afternoon, the open to public Pop-Up event offered an interactive experience aimed at knowledge mobilization.
World Cafe
The session kicked off with a presentation by the organizing teams, followed by breakout discussions to get everyone actively involved. Around 40 participants were split into five groups, each bringing together people from different fields— city planners, city councilors, disability advocates, researchers, and people with lived experience. The discussions at each table were facilitated by the research team to ensure meaningful conversations about accessibility and barriers affecting the daily lives of people with mobility, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. The MAP-SWAN team analyzed the documented discussion to identify key themes, which were then compiled into a succinct joint publications with Happy Cities.
UrbanAccessibilityForumReport0207.pdfRead the full report for valuable insights on the functionality of built environment, navigation and way-finding, safety, social interactions, and aesthetics.
Experiential Pop up
The afternoon session was designed to make civic education and knowledge sharing truly meaningful through community engagement, so it was a family-friendly event open to the public. There were five interactive stations for participants to explore and connect with.
- "On the Move" Video Station
- Photoboard Display
- Interactive game "On the Move"
- DemSCAPE Project
- SFU Morris J.Wosk Centre for Dialogue
While the community forum was able to foster collaboration and dialogue between community stakeholders and people with lived experiences, there is still more work to be done. The SWAN team envisions a future where people living with different abilities can actively collaborate with decision makers in developing an inclusive and accessible neighborhood environment.