Toilets For Severely Disabled People Made Compulsory In Every New Building In England

Good news and about time too.

Ami, I need a hoist to get on a toilet. Every time I go out I am worried I will need to go to the toilet, and have to be sure I will have access to a Changing Places toilet if I expect I will need to go. If I can't be sure, I stay at home. It is very restricting, isolating, and morale mincing!

This is a welcome change and disabled toilets are a problem. In my workplace there is only one disabled toilet which is abused by non disabled staff on a daily basis. The floor is left in a wet state, the cubicle is left in a disgusting state leaving it in a dangerous condition for the disabled staff who need to use it. Some staff have a wash in the cubicle, do not flush the toilet and think it is okay to make the disabled cubicle the place to go to to leave a mess when they can use the many other toilets in the building. The abuse of disabled toilets in public places including non disabled people using them because they don’t want to queue is very common. Unfortunately some people think it’s okay to flood the floor with water and leave a mess without flushing the toilet. If you’re lucky that a disabled cubicle has a Radar lock then you might find a clean and safe toilet but many places including shopping centres won’t install them leaving the cubicles open to abuse. Having access to a clean, dry and safe disabled cubicle makes a huge difference to disabled people, however, too many think it is okay to use the cubicles as a wash room when it is not set up for that use meaning the disabled people that need to use it are at a serious risk of falling.

Hi @mikehughescq,
Unfortunately many people in work and outside of work don’t understand how distressing it can be for a disabled person to be able to access a safe and clean cubicle which has not been covered in water or left in an unclean state. I have almost fallen on many occasions. However, at another workplace a disabled wheelchair user skidded across the floor when they entered the disabled cubicle because someone who was not disabled had been using the disabled cubicle as a shower room on a regular basis! I just wish some people wouldn’t use the disabled cubicle when they can use the other cubicles which nearly always outnumber the disabled cubicles. For some strange reason many people think it is okay to misuse disabled cubicles. I have reported unsafe disabled cubicles in a well known shopping centre and asked them to install Radar locks but they have refused so I don’t shop there anymore because the disabled cubicles are always flooded with water because of people using it as a washroom and I am not referring to disabled people. Another problem is when shopping centres or other places have the baby changing and disabled cubicles as one cubicle reducing access for disabled people. The problem can be that disabled people are not regarded as valuable customers so if I cannot access a safe disabled cubicle I vote with my feet.