Disabled toilets need attention
I cover the topic of Changing Places quite frequently, but have paid less attention to what we might describe as ordinary disabled toilets.
These are very widely available, and ought to be accessible to disabled people. I say “ought to be” because the truth is that even if they follow the rules laid down in Doc M of the Building Regulations, a considerable proportion of their intended clients cannot actually use them…
What follows is from IL newsletter reader Amy Silverston
I have been confined to a power wheelchair for just over two years. MS affects people in different ways. In my case it has gone to my legs and I cannot walk or lift my feet. I can stand if I am able to pull myself upright out of my chair and hang onto something. Whilst I cannot lift my feet I can drag them into position.
Public disabled toilets conform to the design specified in Document M. The British Standards Institute are custodian of this design, supplying it to architects etc. If a building includes a disabled toilet to this design the vital boxes are ticked. However, the BSI did not come up with this design and no one wants to claim responsibility for it or altering it. Many people find it impossible to use because one needs to be able to stand unassisted.
If you cannot push yourself up to standing and do not have the balance to stand without holding onto something this toilet design simply does not work. It is just about possible to get oneself onto the toilet seat by positioning the wheelchair across the front of the toilet with a gap wide enough to stand in between the two, leaning forwards to grasp the vertical grab bar nearest the toilet and the horizontal bar on the wall alongside the toilet. One then has to find a way of pulling down trousers and knickers and somehow getting onto the toilet seat.
Getting on is difficult, Getting off impossible
If that was difficult, finding something to hold onto in order to pull oneself up and forwards off the seat is impossible. The vertical grab bar nearest the toilet is too close and the other one, on the far side of the mirror and sink, is too far away to reach. The sink offers no help, though I have seen the tap pulled off by people hauling themselves up with it.
The impossibility of using public disabled toilets confines many people to home.
Home of design fails on toilet design
Some months ago I made my first excursion away from home to the Design Museum, assuming that they would have a disabled toilet par excellence. I was very wrong. My friend, who was helping me, and I found ourselves in the disabled toilet with me unable to stand at all because there was nothing to hold onto.
We pulled the red cord, summoning a member of staff who also did not know how to help me get up. Nor did the next person she called for assistance. In the end there were six people and me in the disabled toilet. They gave up in the end and called a security guard who bodily lifted me up and plonked me back in my chair.
I was extremely grateful for the fact I had not got as far as pulling my trousers and underwear down before landing heavily on the toilet seat fully clothed. However, having been put back in my wheelchair I still wanted to go to the loo. We had to go to the nearest hospital where at least they did have a disabled toilet, though it was very, very difficult to use – I never could have managed it on my own.
Since then I have not dared leave the house for more than three hours.
British Library also a fail
Prior to lockdown I was working freelance doing research for advertising agencies, using the resources of the British Library. When the library reopened I went with a friend to see if any of the disabled toilets are usable.
We tested their various designs and took with us a security manager responsible for the building. He had assumed that, being Document M compliant, they would work for disabled people. He was dismayed to realise it was not so, that indeed I could not even get into some of the toilets let alone get out again because I would be behind a door that needed to come towards me when it opened.
Public toilets surveyed in London
Recently, the Health Committee of the Greater London Authority conducted a big survey of public toilets, focusing on disabled toilet provision, after the head of the Health Committee went round London with a friend who has MS and discovered the toilets were inaccessible to disabled people. I filled in the questionnaire but have not seen any results or findings.
The British Library and Design Museum both have the ability to change their own toilets and are willing to do so, given guidelines to what to do. The first thing I suggested to both was to use hinges on the doors that open both ways.
Several of those to whom I have spoken agreed with my suggestion that this is sort of problem that students of public design could solve.
Changing Places have a different remit
Another common response refers to Changing Places rooms. However, when I approached the Changing Places asking why there is no provision for helping people using the toilet in these rooms to stand up and keep their balance, they said these facilities are intended for severely disabled people with one or two carers helping them.
All I want is a toilet I can use on my own, just like everyone else who uses the loo.
Change is in the air – Amy Silverston takes up the story:
Much ringing around and emails eventually led me to Michael Gove’s levelling up ministry as being responsible for building regulations. By the time I got to them they had begun the process of looking into how Document M could or should be changed.
Unfortunately, they seem to be doing this in relative isolation and had not contacted any of the organisations one might have expected, such as the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers or the British Toilet Association.
Research being undertaken by civil engineers
They appointed a division of civil engineers Arup to do the job. They had already done a quantitative research questionnaire, though who was surveyed I don’t know.
They are at the stage of qualitative research, setting up online focus groups and conducting one-to-one interviews. They are looking for people to participate. Anyone interested should contact:
Nuala O’Sullivan
Consultant | Access and Inclusive Environments
Nuala.Osullivan@arup.com
The man organising the focus groups is Adam at
PartMResearch@arup.com
The revised building regulations are due to be finalised this year and will come into use in 2023.
