New Website Names Gender-Inclusive Bathrooms on Campus
By: Anastasia Carter, Mia Walsh
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The Division of Diversity and Inclusion launched a website listing the known gender-inclusive bathrooms at OU. For those who need this accessible resource, this news was more than welcomed.
“I know for me, as a transgender woman, finding bathrooms can be really difficult,” Luvina Cooley, a junior studying anthropology, said. “So being able to have a resource that’s in one place where all of these bathrooms on campus are listed, there’s an interactive map on it, which I think is really cool.”
Miranda Kridler, the senior planner with Ohio University Planning, was one of the key people in helping create the list.
“The resources like this are a form of making our campus more accessible by making sure that people are comfortable, they’re safe, they have the spaces that they need to be able to support their presence on campus which is core to their academic success,” Kridler said.
Need for Knowledge of Accessible Restrooms
Cooley emphasized that the accessibility of the virtual map was an improvement to the system being used previously. She said the website could come in handy when those who utilize gender-inclusive bathrooms are planning their class schedules.
“I didn’t even figure out that there was a gender-neutral bathroom on the third floor of Baker Center until my junior year of college, which is a problem because like having access to that is super accessible because, you know, nobody wants to walk down to the first floor if they don’t have to,” Cooley said. “So being able to know that there’s something on the third floor, really helpful. It saves a lot of time saves a lot of energy.”
The Planning
Kridler said many faculty members assisted in gathering data for gender-inclusive bathroom locations on campus.
“So the LGBT Center, the Women’s Center and University Planning were in the mix for kind of helping this get launched but we also had partners across the university from a lot of departments that you know, they just got an email and said, ‘Hey, can you go, double-check your restroom or you know, we can’t get access,’” Kridler said. “So can you give us a little information and that’s just been really nice to see you know that these kinds of projects don’t happen with one single department.”
Even since the launch of the website, Kridler said they’ve received information from people about other gender-inclusive bathrooms on campus.
“It’s been wonderful, really positive to see how many folks from our Ohio University community have proactively reached out just to make sure that we can update and make that those resources as accurate as possible,” Kridler said. “And they are an evolving resource, right? So, every change that happens, there’s going to be new things that have to get added. So that’s an ongoing part of the project.”