Campus
- Mississauga (UTM)
Fields of Study
- Policy & Planning
- Social & Political Geography
- Urban
Areas of Interest
Geographies of disability, Neurodivergence and the city, Public toilet accessibility, Public transport and mobility
Biography
Rhonda is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography, Geomatics, and the Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga and a 2022-2023 School of Cities graduate fellow. Her research considers the accessibility of public toilet spaces in North America through a critical disability studies lens, exploring how the lack of public washrooms designed to accommodate the toileting needs of children with disabilities impacts disabled children and their families.
Rhonda is currently engaged in her SSHRC-funded research “Lying on a restroom floor: Disabled childhoods with no place to go,” as well as work that will inform Canadian transit service providers’ policies concerning the provision of equitable transit access. She has published peer-reviewed work as well as a report on disability and public engagement for the City of Toronto. She also organized and moderated a panel discussion entitled “Disability in the City: Inclusive Public Toilets as a Humanizing Feature of the Urban Realm” during her School of Cities fellowship.
As a 2024-2025 Connaught PhDs for Public Impact fellow, Rhonda will create a YouTube channel where the stories and experiences of people living with disabilities are told. The channel will focus on how people with disabilities access the urban landscape, with a special emphasis on the lack of accessible restrooms in public spaces. As an autistic academic, she is dedicated to bringing disabled, and particularly neurodivergent, voices to research and scholarship.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
• Solomon, R.C., & Buliung, R. (2024). ‘Mad’ transit and bad apples. Disability & Society. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2024.2385942
• Buliung, R., & Solomon, R.C. (2022). Leaky bodies and broken bathrooms: Stories about ableism and going to the loo. Planning Theory and Practice, (23)1. doi: 10.1080/14649357.2022.2035545
Technical Reports
• Solomon, R., & Buliung, R. (forthcoming). Rebuilding the table: Disability and public engagement. City of Toronto.
• Solomon, R. (June 2013). A comparative policy analysis of public toilet provision initiatives in North American cities: Recommendations for the creation of a public toilet strategy in Toronto. University of Toronto Cities Centre. ISSN 0316-0068; ISBN-13 978-0-7727-1484-8
Supervisor
Ron Buliung