Some Accessible Toilets have gone through welcome changes over the years. There is the introduction of the Radar Key which prevent those without the radar key from using accessible toilets. And there has been an increasing number of Changing Places popping up in some venues too. These are positive and welcomed changes.
But—yes, there’s a but, you knew there would be— these two schemes are still too few and far between.
Shared Nappy-Changing Room
Still, too frequently, disabled people and people who need access to accessible toilets find that they have to share their toilet as a nappy-changing room.
This creates a pong I’m sure they did not want in the women or men’s toilets. Especially, as the smell suggests, if the bins are not emptied regally. I wouldn’t mind sharing so much if the bin had been emptied maybe every few hours.
Then there is the issue that you may need the toilet. Your disability gives you a weaker bladder control than most adults and you are stuck outside the only disabled toilet. Someone on the other side of the door is changing their baby’s nappy.
It’s not the parents’ fault of course, often there is not a separate changing faculty for them either. That on its own is a separate issue. There was a time where single fathers couldn’t change their kids nappies as the changing facility were in the women’s toilets. Arrangements need to be made for both the disabled and parents of infants.
Realistically, the best thing that businesses could do, if they cannot give separate Nappy-Changing Rooms is to maintain the bin.
Unfortunately I don’t have a suggestion for if a disabled person and a parent needs it at the same time. I suppose the age-old first come will have to suffice for now.
Non-Radar Key Doors
If a business does have the space to separate a nappy-changing room from accessibility toilet, then I see no reason why the door shouldn’t have a radar key. I have experienced first hand people who will use the accessibility toilets without a care for those who actually need it.
At university, people would go into them to avoid the long queues when the university held an event at the Academy Bar because waiting half an hour in a long queue when you are full of alcohol and need to pee is not a pleasant idea. Sometimes, women would go in there in groups of two or three, their make-up bags in their hands, clearly wanting to avoid the queue but have that compulsive urge to top-up their make-up.
But do you know what was interesting? During these events, the disabled toilets would be in use, there would be a massive queue for both the ladies and the men’s toilet, and yet… the gender neutral toilet next to the disabled toilet… would have no queue.
People would rather stop a disabled person from using these toilets than use the gender neutral toilets next to it! Why?
Similar stories from other bloggers
Blogger, Kerry Thompson also has seen able-bodied people use these loos when they have no need to.
If I had a pound for the number of people who have admitted they – in fact – have I would totally be a millionaire by now, it’s not from people I’ve just met either friends and family have held their hands up.
Kerry Thompson
Additionally, my friend and blogger, Sophie, finds these toilets hard to use.
When I do get access into the standard locked disabled toilets. I find it is a very cramped space. I would say that it is no bigger than a standard sized cubical in the men or women’s toilets.
Sophie Abel
These doors should use the radar key if the nappy-changing faculty is not a feature. After all, why would someone need to use this room if they are not disabled?
Accessibility Toilets as Storage
These same, unlocked toilets have often become places of storage for small businesses. A pub in Solihull (which has now closed down) was full to the brim with black bags, and there was a folded ladder covering the red cord too. I’m pretty sure that is illegal as the cord needs to be a maximum of three inches from the ground and easily accessible in case someone using these loos are on their own and slip.
I learned this from the swimming pool I used to go to where a member of staff moving the changing bed for me to shower accidentally pulled the cord and another staff told me about it.
The terrible fact is that these rooms are small for people who are in wheelchairs already. They’re not that accessible, despite their name. Using them as a storage like this only makes them less accessible. The Solihull pub, although imprinted in my memory as it was one of the worst ones I saw, was not the first toilet I have seen like this, and it will not be the last.
These toilets should be given the same maintenance and usage as a general toilet. I bet businesses would not dream of asking their able-bodied customers to share their loos with piles (and I mean stacked piles by the way) of black bags and ladders.
Why are accessible toilets different?
Poorly Maintained
If they are not used as storage rooms, then they are poorly maintained. I have been in countless of accessible toilets that reek of urine! REEK of it! You can tell it hadn’t happened that day.
The floor is sometimes “dry” but exceedingly sticky. Other times, it looks like a flood of discoloured water. Then you have what looks like a roll of toilet roll sticking to the walls and the floor.
Seriously? How!
SOME people are disgusting.
This does not happen in accessibility rooms where there is a radar key. Not once have I seen this happen in a radar key loo. Ever. And only those who have a key can access the radar toilet.
So why does it happen in the ones without the key? I’ll leave you to work that out.
These toilets also lack loo roll most of the time. And hand soap. Imagine if we could all go out as normal again now… imagine going to the loo and seeing there was no hand soap. I bet people will now wrinkle their nose up in disgust more than ever… and that was my experience with these loos before the lockdown.
And if I complained? Well, I got the roll of the eye as if I was a Karen. Going to the loo is a human right. Why do I need to be in a germ-infested one because I am disabled?
Seriously, businesses. Get your act together and clean up the accessibility toilets! And if possible, if it is a separate loo to other faculties, then put a radar key on it… who knows, you might find it needs slightly less cleaning.
Radar Key Toilets & Changing Places
The Radar Key and Changing Places toilets do not have as many issues as the non-radar key ones. They are often maintained better and are less likely to be used as a storage area, which is great.
The only criticism of the Radar Key toilet is that it can sometimes be too small for a wheelchair user to use efficiently. Also, occasionally, the sink is at a ridiculous height that you have to get yourself into a weird angle, wheelchair bound or not, to use the sink. Although this is rare, it still needs to be thought about.
As a person who is not in a wheelchair, I do not have much experience with Changing Places, that is Sophie’s expertise. However, what I gather is that they are more spacious and that they have more equipment variety to help wheelchair users go to the loo. The only criticism it seems is that there are too little of them. But go look at Sophie’s blog to find out more.
One of the reoccurring issues that I have faced when out in public is the lack of the correct facilitated disabled toilets. Granted there are a number of disabled toilets already in existence, but they are poorly equipped for disabled people.
Sophie Abel
New Changes Over the Horizon
It is rare lately that disabled people are even considered. With the introduction of PIP in 2013, disabled people were increasingly ignored. However, I am happy to report a win. A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that any new supermarket, shopping centres, sports avenues or art avenues in 2021 must have access to at least one Changing Places facility. The facility must include enough room for all the equipment, the wheelchair user and two carers.
This is a massive win for people who struggle in the standard sized toilets.
Additionally, there is a budget of £30 Million to add changing place facilities in existing buildings that are currently lacking them. This is a massive improvement as I know many people, my friend included, would rather risk dehydration than needing the loo and not being able to use one due to its space or lack of equipment.
Extra funding is also allocated to add changing place facilities at service stations, which currently only has 50. In the next few years, this will rise to 87 out of the 118.
I am happy for all my friends and readers who rely on these spaces!
Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to join my Facebook group — you don’t have to have a disability, just an interest in it. Looking forward to seeing you there!