As a child of the 90s, I am a big fan of superheroes. They serve an importance by providing children a role model to inspire to be like. With the WIP program, I think we can learn quite a bit from one particular hero… Captain Underpants. In particular, in Attack of the Talking Toilets we see what happens when we do not expect the institution to hold an audit. We go through the years without ever really considering that there are issues with our bathroom, then one day the toilets come alive and start eating people. In the ultimate form of inaccessibility, it takes brave and committed students/heroes such as yourself to stop this from happening. Whether you know it or not, inaccessible bathrooms effects everyone in their own unique ways. People learn from interacting with one another and address the problems that we see. If there is not a forum to address this, there is a ripple effect from students not feeling as though their opinions are valued. If we cannot provide an easy to access map for bathrooms, how can students feel valued amongst their professors and peers? We as a community miss out on some great ideas that students can provide. For all you know, it could be one of these students that rally against talking toilets and that saves millions of lives. So when you consider taking part in helping as map it out, we must consider the long-term influence of our decisions. Think about students within the different groups now, in the future, and the larger community. Let’s look back at our heroes as a child, think about what they would do and I think the decision should be fairly obvious.
The most important piece of advice that I ever received is that being perceptive is the most important quality for success. Being able to understand the way that other people experience the world around them is a criminally underappreciated trait. So when relating these notions to the Washroom Inclusivity Project, the biggest struggle we face as a group is getting over the inherent silliness associated with poop and toilets. I am as guilty of this as anyone when I first joined the project. However, there were certain thoughts and circumstances that reoccurred in my head that helped me to quickly understand WIP’s significance. It is very easy to imagine a funny scenario where you’ve run out of toilet paper or accidently broke something and have a hearty laugh about it. Yes, it is embarrassing at the time, but it is not a part of a significant struggle for most people. This mentality becomes more complicated when it relates to one of the groups that the WIP tries to highlight. Take into consideration the anxiety that the transgender community may face if they were told they’re in the “wrong bathroom” or a student parent has trying to find a practical place to change a diaper on campus When you start to think about the issues from this perspective, a supposedly innocent toilet can be seen as a source of frustration. It is these types of considerations and observances that will help all of us achieve a better understanding of washroom inclusivity.
What we can learn from The Question of Access by Tanya Titchkosky, is how the “average” individual under appreciates the ability to use public washrooms. There has been a long history of ableist ideals in our society that reinforces a sense of inferiority to those that don’t fit these standards. By not being able to provide some simple changes to accommodate different disabilities, we as a society fail to encourage these members of our community to feel like they are not defined by their disabilities. It is in this regard that projects such as WIP become more significant than adding a pole to a washroom. Instead, we are helping to inform the University of any changes that would not affect the lives of the general population, but is significant to the process of empowering those in need. When you start by addressing easy solutions, you give the individual with disabilities the ability to be more ambitious and fight for more complex needs. We believe that the University of Toronto is a school that encourages their students to be the best they can be and where all students feel comfortable enough to accomplish their goals.
Titchkosky Tanya, The Question of Access, Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2011
