Please do not copy this page without credit to us. Crip Students have worked hard to make this happen. Instead of copying the text, put a link to this page in your event info.
Crip Students’ club room Ulrika is a space granted to us by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki (HYY), which we share with other organisations. Holding meetings there is free for us, and we can book it for our use at any time. Since HYY has not made a comprehensive accessibility survey of the space despite our repeated requests, we started gathering Ulrika’s accessibility information and arrival instructions into one place ourselves. The project is still in progress, so we keep updating and adding information as best we can. Thank you for your patience. As a young organisation, we are constantly thinking about and working on ways, practices and principles to make participation as accessible as possible for as many people as possible.
Club room Ulrika
Crip Students Organisation’s club room Ulrika is in the basement of the Domus Gaudium building owned by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki. The address of Domus Gaudium is Leppäsuonkatu 11, 00100 Helsinki. It’s an L-shaped building located at the corner of Mechelininkatu and Leppäsuonkatu in Etu-Töölö, Helsinki.
The accessible entrance to the building is at the gable end on the Leppäsuonkatu side. The door is marked in red in the picture below. The entrance door is also marked on the Useful Aalto Map made by Aalto University.
Arriving
The club room Ulrika is accessible by public transport. It’s in HSL zone A. In the side bar of Aalto University’s Useful Aalto Map you can view the different ways of getting there.
The Aalto map also has a link to the HSL Journey Planner, where the entrance to Domus Gaudium is already marked as the destination and you can just change the starting point to where you are.
If you prefer using Google Maps, write Karjalainen Osakunta as the destination, since it’s marked at the same end of the building where the door is. Here’s a link to it as well: Karjalainen Osakunta on Google Maps.
The closest stops and distance to the door
By tram
- Maria: about 200 m
- Arkadiankatu: about 240 m
- Hanken: about 340 m
By bus
- Leppäsuonkatu: about 150 m
- Hanken: about 400 m
By metro
- Kamppi: about 700 m
By car
Pick-up and drop-off traffic can stop on Leppäsuonkatu near the building or, if needed, drive right next to the door. The taxi stop is in front of Leppäsuonkatu 11, next to Domus Academica’s B building (Leppäsuonkatu 9 B). When the gate there is open, you can also drive through it right up to the front door. There is some parking at the side of Leppäsuonkatu. The two accessible parking spaces are in the inner courtyard between Leppäsuonkatu 11 and Mechelininkatu 3 D. The courtyard is entered from the Mechelininkatu side and the vehicle gate needs a code to open, so please contact us if you need to use the spaces.
By bike
There are several sturdy bicycle racks outside next to the door. The closest city bike stations (Alepa bikes) are Marian sairaala and Leppäsuonaukio.
Arrival instructions with pictures
Arriving from the Mechelininkatu side
From the Mechelininkatu side you can recognise the Domus Gaudium building by its big glass windows and the white ESB Estonian Business School logo on them. The Liikku Töölö fitness club with green Liikku signs is also in the same building on the Mechelininkatu side. See the picture below, taken from the opposite side of Mechelininkatu (the Hietaniemi cemetery side).
Once you have found the right building, turn onto Leppäsuonkatu so that Domus Gaudium (the wall with the glass windows, also visible in the picture below) is on your left and the Kivilähde stone shop is on your right. Walk down the road until you reach the end of the building.
The entrance to the building is on the terrace on your left. You can reach it by taking the stairs or by going a little further past the stairs, where you can use the ramp instead. Here’s a picture of the corner of the building and the stairs leading to the door.
Below is also a picture of the whole wall, taken from opposite the door leading to Ulrika. Leppäsuonkatu, which leads back to Mechelininkatu where you came from, is on the left in the picture, and the big glass doors to Ulrika are on the right.
Once you are at the door, you can see a door buzzer between the doors. Press the button in the lower right corner that says Ulrika Järjestötilat. We’ll hear the ring and will come up to open the door for you. Picture of the buzzer below.
Arriving from Kamppi along Leppäsuonkatu
When arriving from Kamppi, the shortest route to Ulrika is walking along Leppäsuonkatu. Leppäsuonkatu starts at the crossing of Eteläinen Rautatiekatu and Runeberginkatu, next to the restaurant called Kraken (Hietaniemenkatu 2). When you stand in front of the door to Kraken, you can see Leppäsuonkatu going downhill on its left side. Below is a picture of the restaurant Kraken and Leppäsuonkatu on its left side.
After walking about 200 metres down Leppäsuonkatu, you’ll come to the crossroads where Leppäsuonkatu turns right (see the picture below). From the crossing you can see Domus Gaudium (the building Ulrika is in) on the right side of the red gabled building. Domus Gaudium is a low brown building on the right side of the road. Its wall on the Leppäsuonkatu side is covered with glass, but you don’t need to walk that far. The door to Ulrika is on the wall facing you when you walk towards the building from the crossing (see the next picture).
Once you have walked about 50 metres from the crossing, the end of Domus Gaudium and the door leading to Ulrika will be straight ahead of you on the right side of the road. You can get to the door by the gentle slope in the front of the picture or by the stairs shown in the picture.
You can see the glass doors leading to Ulrika on the right in the picture.
Once you are at the door, you will see a door buzzer between the doors. Press the button in the lower right corner that says Ulrika Järjestötilat. We’ll hear the ring and will come up to open the door for you. Picture of the buzzer below.
Accessibility
Physical accessibility
A full accessibility assessment of the space has not been made. However, Crip Students have tested the space to be accessible with a power wheelchair when someone helps with the doors. Because the door buzzer does not work properly, we come up to open the front door for everyone. This way we can both help with the heavy doors and guide arrivals to the space, which is one floor below the front doors. The front doors do also have opening buttons, but in our experience they work only some of the time. Inside, immediately to the left of the front doors, there is a spacious lift for moving between floors. The door to the Ulrika space has no automatic opening and it cannot be wedged open because of the alarm system, but we help each other with it too.
Both the front door and the doorways of the Ulrika space are wide and the floors are level, but on the way there are two thresholds that are 2 cm high at their highest point. The first one is 12 cm and the second 8 cm wide. At least with a power wheelchair, you can get over the thresholds without help, and we are happy to help with them. We can also borrow rubber ramps from another organisation, although they don’t fit the doors very well. We have been pushing for ramps for the space for over a year, but HYY has been unreasonably slow about it. We are currently looking into alternative funding options and aim to fix this as soon as possible. We want to make sure that nobody is kept from taking part because of accessibility, so please contact us if anything is on your mind or if you have access needs or wishes you would like us to know about. We treat your information confidentially and share it only with the people responsible for organising the event in question. The best ways to reach us are the Telegram group, an Instagram direct message or email at rampaopiskelijat@proton.me.
Ulrika is a large space that is easy to rearrange. There are different kinds of seats of different heights, from sofas and armchairs to plastic chairs and stools. The tables also come in different heights and sizes. All the furniture can be moved, and we always arrange it so that you can move around the space with mobility aids too. We gladly help and make accessibility arrangements as needed throughout the event to make participation comfortable for everyone.
Accessible bathroom
Ulrika has one toilet of its own that is not accessible, but there is an accessible bathroom just around the corner on the same floor as Ulrika. You can get next to the toilet seat in a wheelchair, and it has fold-away grab rails on both sides. The bathroom has an emergency call system, which you set off by pulling a cord that hangs from the ceiling next to the toilet. The cord reaches from the ceiling down to about the height of the toilet seat. Pulling it sets off an alarm that can be heard outside the bathroom door and switches on a red light next to the door. The door of the accessible bathroom is light and has a horizontal pull handle on the inside. There is a low threshold at the door.
The washbasin can also be reached in a wheelchair; it is on the right as seen from the door. The bathroom also has a changing table. More detailed measurements of the bathroom are coming. Below are two pictures of the bathroom seen from the door.
Assistive devices, assistants and guide dogs
Assistive devices, assistants and guide dogs are always welcome at our events! Ulrika is a large and very adaptable space, so don’t hesitate to contact us before the event or give us a shout during the event if you need anything!
Sensory accessibility
The space has a high ceiling and gets a little natural light from windows up near the ceiling. In addition, the space has dimmable ceiling lights. We don’t use flashing lights at our events.
The space is fully reserved for our use during Crip Students’ hangouts in Ulrika, so the atmosphere and soundscape are peaceful. There is a calm murmur of conversation, but no sounds from outside can be heard, and there is no one else in the space besides us. We don’t usually play background music unless someone asks for it, and this can always be agreed on together. The kitchen is separate from the hangout area, so you can hardly hear the clatter of dishes there. Because the space is in the basement, sounds from other parts of the building, such as doors banging or footsteps, usually can’t be heard either.
There are many kinds of seats made of different materials to choose from. You are free to move around the space during events. You can also bring things that calm you or something you like doing. You are welcome to come to our events and be yourself, at whatever energy level you happen to have that day. You can arrive late unless otherwise announced, and you can also leave in the middle of an event. We try to put out at least colouring pages, and you are encouraged to bring something nice to do or aids that help with sensory regulation, from earplugs and sunglasses to fidget toys.
Quiet room
Unless otherwise announced, the smaller room in Ulrika (Hedwig) serves as a dim and quiet retreat at Crip Students’ events where you can give your senses a rest. Hedwig is quiet and has adjustable lighting. There are sofas, and the door can also be closed completely, so the calm conversation in the room next door can hardly be heard there at all.
Communication and language
We aim for everyone to be able to take part in the conversation as little or as much as they want, in the way that suits them best. Communication aids are welcome. When needed, we try to interpret each other’s speech into Finnish and English, and also into Swedish as far as those present are able to. Interpreters are warmly welcome. Don’t hesitate to ask if something was left unclear, for example in our communication or in another participant’s turn to speak! This way we can learn more together and get better at accessible communication! You will also be helping others, as you are probably not the only one who was left wondering.
Social accessibility
Our events are open to everyone unless clearly stated otherwise. Even though our activities are above all by us for us, that is, by crips for crips, participants are not required to identify as crip or disabled, for example, and we don’t ask about diagnoses. Everyone who has in some way been classified as disabled, sick, atypical, deviant, etc. is welcome!
We aim to create events free from discrimination and harassment, where everyone can take part according to their own abilities and limitations. We follow safer space principles, but they are not rules dictated from above or ways of punishing people for not knowing something. Instead, they are shared agreements that make it possible for everyone to take part as comfortably and accessibly as possible. However, we also recognise that no space is completely safe and that safety can mean different things to different people. Nobody is perfect, and we all have new things to learn all the time. The most important thing is to try your best, apologise and change what you do. By committing to shared principles, we can promote a culture of discussion where different views can be discussed openly in a safe and kind atmosphere.
As a young organisation, we are constantly thinking about and working on ways and principles to make participation as accessible as possible for as many people as possible. Vastakarva ry, the student organisation for gender studies, has explained in detail and with practical examples what a safer space can mean. Below are some principles that are important to Crip Students. You can read more about what they mean in practice on Vastakarva’s website: Vastakarva ry’s safer space principles (in Finnish).
- We respect each other and each other’s psychological, emotional and physical boundaries.
- We recognise discriminatory structures and our own privileges.
- We are kind and assume the best, meaning that we approach each other with gentleness and leave room for growth.
- We are considerate of others and give space, both physically and in conversations.
- We avoid making assumptions and don’t voice assumptions about other people’s identities, characteristics or functional abilities.
- We give everyone the right to be themselves without questioning their differences.
- We respect body and food peace, meaning that we don’t rank different bodies based on, for example, size or functional ability, and we don’t comment on our own or other people’s eating.
- We respect other people’s privacy, meaning that we don’t share other people’s personal matters, even anonymously, without their permission.
Financial accessibility
Our events are free of charge unless otherwise announced. We are a non-profit, non-commercial association, and we want to offer everyone equal opportunities to take part regardless of their financial situation. We have a voluntary recommended membership fee, because we need income to keep up the organisation’s mandatory bureaucracy and to keep our events free. We are grateful for all the support we receive, but we don’t monitor or judge participants based on whether they have paid the membership fee or how much they paid.