Program on the Environment

Campus farms occupy a unique space at the intersection of education, sustainability, and community engagement, offering students hands-on opportunities to engage in food systems learning. While these spaces are often celebrated as sustainable and inclusive, not all participants experience equal access. In sustainability and educational farming, accessibility as a matter of environmental justice remains unevenly addressed and under-theorized. This project examines how physical, sensory, and social access points shape participation and belonging in campus urban farming. Drawing on internship experience at the UW Farm, this research combines fieldwork with an accessibility audit, staff interviews, and a volunteer survey. Informed by conceptual frameworks grounded in environmental justice, standpoint theory, and inclusive design, the analysis identifies how barriers across physical infrastructure, sensory communication, and institutional culture intersect to reproduce inequalities. For instance, inaccessible pathways, limited multisensory signage, and reliance on unpaid labor restrict participation and belonging. Findings suggest that compliance alone does not ensure inclusion, and meaningful participation requires attention to how people experience, perceive, and are socially supported in sustainability spaces. Ultimately, campus farms serve as microcosms of environmental justice, revealing who benefits from sustainability programs and who remains excluded. Embedding accessibility into design, governance, and education can model how sustainability initiatives institutionalize inclusion. Accessibility must therefore be understood as an ongoing, socially accountable practice rather than a completed checklist.