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We present an on-going multidisciplinary and multisectorial strategic development project put forth by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of greater Montreal (CRIR) in Quebec, Canada and its members, in collaboration with a Montreal “renovation-ready” shopping mall, local community organizations, and local, national and international research and industrial partners. Beginning in 2011, within the context of the Mall as Living Lab (MALL), more than 45 projects were initiated to: (1) identify the environmental, physical and social obstacles and facilitators to participation; (2) develop technology and interventions to optimize physical and cognitive function participation and inclusion; (3) implement and evaluate the impact of technology and interventions in vivo. Two years later and working within a participatory action research (PAR) approach, and the overarching WHO framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), we discuss challenges and future endeavors. Challenges include creating and maintaining partnerships, ensuring a PAR approach to engage multiple stakeholders (e.g. people with disabilities, rehabilitation and design researchers, health professionals, community members and shopping mall stakeholders) and assessing the overall impact of the living lab. Future endeavors, including the linking between research results and recommendations for renovations to the mall, are also presented.

Adapting public spaces for persons with disabilities can be both physically and socially challenging. The two pilot studies presented explore the existing physical conditions of the mall and the social experiences of the mall users as these are documented and experienced by them. The research goals include understanding the physical characteristics of the mall, how access happens, what people experience in real time when going to the mall and what this might mean in terms of issues of social construction of space and personal lived experiences. In both pilot studies, the methods included visual documentation and content analysis of the existing spaces and their design, followed by live in-mall walk-abouts with participants, during which narratives of the experiences were recorded. Researchers engaged collaboratively with participants to understand the experiences, challenges and situations they experienced. Participants include persons with reduced vision or severe vision loss and persons in motorized wheelchairs. Results reveal issues of lack of accessibility, poor contrast and issues of way-finding. Social stigmas add to mall experiences and participants nevertheless reveal the value of the social experiences despite the mall elements hampering their access.