91ĹÝÜ˝

The Inclusive Environments Lab at 91ĹÝÜ˝ focuses on assessing housing, neighbourhoods, and the built environment for older adults and individuals with mobility, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. Through our projects, we have collaborated with universities such as UBC, Dalhousie University, UniversitĂ© Laval, Western University, University of Manchester, University of Exeter and Goethe University Frankfurt. We are committed to bridging the gap between academia and practice, actively engaging with community partners. Recent collaborations include the municipalities of Metro Vancouver, and organizations like Brightside Community Homes and Whole Way House, ensuring our research is grounded in real-world insights.

Currently we multiple core projects running parallel in the lab, each with their own methods to explore the built environment:​

1. ​The Stakeholders’ Walkability/Wheelability Audit in Neighbourhoods (SWAN) is a sub-project of the  partnership under the stream of Navigation and Pedestrian Environment
   • Stakeholders’ Walkability/Wheelability Audit in Neighbourhoods (SWAN) - Climate builds on the existing project by adding a climate lens to explore how extreme weather, like heat and rain, affects mobility and community access for older adults with disabilities.
2. Project Sidewalk, a tool developed by the at the University of Washington for collecting street-level accessibility data, has been adopted to gather data from the city of Burnaby
3. NeighbourABLE Vancouver is project funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) with the goal of developing a tool that assesses “person-environment fit”—how well housing and neighbourhoods fit the needs of residents with disabilities​
4. Comprehensive Approach to Enhance Older Adults’ Preparedness for Extreme Heat (COPE) – is an international, multi-method research initiative aimed at understanding factors which supporrt extreme heat preparedness. The study has three componenets, COPE-Daily, COPE-Engage and COPE-Co-create.
5. Aging in the Right Place is a theoratical framework which considers how older adults can live as long as possible in their homes while recognizing that an older person’s living environment must support their unique needs, lifestyles, and vulnerabilities.

As the projects under the lab have commonalities in terms of research stream and location, the combined efforts under the lab can achieve the following objectives:​

• Engage with local communities, stakeholders, and people with disabilities in the design and evaluation of neighbourhood environments, ensuring that their voices are integral to the research process​
• Promote collaborative research on neighbourhood inclusivity, combining insights from various projects to build a comprehensive understanding of the built environment’s impact on diverse populations.​
• Integrate knowledge mobilization activities and knowledge products across projects, enhancing outreach, promoting wider dissemination of findings, and ensuring the efficient use of resources ​

​Through interdisciplinary research and innovative methods, the lab strives to create inclusive environments that enhance the quality of life for these communities.​