Interviews:"What Makes a Safe Space Safe?"
Case Study on Safe Spaces pt. II
10.01.2021
HCD Collaborative Project - Case Study of Safe Spaces in Transportation for LBGTQ+ Students
I am a part of a group who is attempting to analyze how we can make safe spaces on the University of Arkansas campus, and it’s included transportation to create an environment that allows for LGBT individuals to feel included and respected without fear. We have conducted several forms of research to give us insight into how we can build transportation and safe spaces that appeal to different mindsets and types of people. One of the forms we chose was interview based so we could gain different points of view on what makes a space or situation safe.
In our interview process, our main goal was to synthesize the reasons that people within the LGBT Community felt safe or unsafe in certain situations and really get to the bottom of how that impacted the ways they commute or the places they go. We started our interview process by asking basic questions pertaining to who they are so we could get an idea of how their personality and involvement in the LGBT community impacts the decisions they make. Both individuals we interviewed were familiar with LGBT communities present on and around campus and were familiar with the inclusion and inner workings of these groups and the importance of being included.
We started this process by asking how they determine how a location is perceived to them as safe as well as how commuting and traveling within an area is perceived. One person we interviewed mentioned that a space designed for everyone would be best so that everyone can feel safe and do what they need, as well as each need might be different but there’s an importance to everyone obeying the safe space’s rules. The same person mentioned that their home is their intentional safe space; But that a way we can design a universal place like that depends on the place’s DNA, a place that has been designed to be universal is good, but it doesn’t mean it is, some places may have the symbols of being a safe space but lack the knowledge to be universal for all.
Another mentioned that a safe space is not made but earned for them personally. This is a new perspective we found that incorporates the idea that a space must be felt out and the people in it analyzed before it can be counted as a safe space to them personally because they are skeptical of new places and prefer to find outliers and to connect with people; So, to them its more about the people than the space they are residing in.
Both agreed that they were worried about having a hateful act committed against them whilst in public or riding on transportation, but that it depends on the people around them to how unsafe they feel. The likelihood of feeling unsafe with many people around is lower because there’s more people likely to react in their defense. However, but individuals also mentioned walking alone or in a dark area provokes uncomfortable feelings. The second individual mentioned also outlined feeling unsafe while commuting to their car after a late class because they were followed relentlessly by an individual who appeared to them as unsafe. Both individuals also mentioned a combination of driving and walking on campus and an aversion to public transportation.
Overall, the interview process gave us a lot of insight into different perspectives on what makes a safe space that we otherwise wouldn’t have considered. We found that individuals who attend the University of Arkansas who are LGBT that are involved in LGBT communities on and off campus, in general, feel unsafe enough to avoid public transportation and different locations on campus that give them the feeling of potentially being the victim of a hate crime or made to feel uncomfortable. These feelings are more closely rooted in the fact that people within spaces aren’t by default trusted by people within the LGBT community. However, it takes analysis to discover if people within a given environment will be trusted by an LGBT member. Also, because many spaces aren’t universally designed to be comfortable for everyone, and that many are only designed towards a specific group.
The resolution to this process then is to try to design a space that is designed universally with an emphasis on being inclusive for all while also not tolerating those who would try and get in the way of anyone else’s safe space. This could be done but also requires the “DNA” of the space to be baked in with people who are inclusive of all and understand other individuals universally.
Trust and inclusion is something that is earned and not build into a space.