ITAAL's history
During May to June 1997 Bob and Diana Twitchin, both wheelchair users, began to feel that their very independence and ability to move around was in question. It seemed that every time they left home they were being tried and tested on the subject of accessible loos.
In May 1997, huge crowds lined Bristol’s Avon Gorge to watch the replica of Matthew Cabot’s ship sail for Newfoundland. The event had been advertised as catering for everyone but the accessible portable loos sited along the Avon Gorge did not take powered wheelchairs, neither did they offer safe use by those with weak arm movements. As Cabot’s ship sailed the Twitchins were racing two miles across Bristol to use the accessible loo at the Great Britain Exhibition. No one had been able to direct them to an accessible loo, but they remembered a previous visit to the Great Britain Exhibition. They had spent £500 on that weekend but missed the ship sail and because their wheelchair batteries had run down they also missed the evening firework display.
Seven days later Diana attended a weekend conference held at a factory where the only loo she could use was in the medical bay. The conference organiser, the only person with a security pass to enter the factory buildings, had to escort Diana the half mile to and from the medical bay. This took half an hour. Diana did not like to keep asking to be taken to the loo because the conference organiser was very busy. So she stopped drinking for the duration of the conference, and left as soon as she could.
Later that week Bob attended a meeting in a central London government building. The doorkeeper took 20 minutes to find the key for the ground floor accessible loo. It took another 20 minutes for Bob to get to the meeting on the 6th floor, making him 40 minutes late for the meeting, despite the fact he had been in the building for well before it was due to start. The building apparently had only one accessible loo.
In early June problems came at the 75th anniversary of the Disabled Drivers Motor Club. The accessible portable loos on offer were those that the Twitchins could not use. Diana joined the long queue for the purpose built accessible loo on site – waiting time half an hour – and limited her drinking for the rest of the day. Disabled people in the queue entered philosophically into a ‘loos we have known’ horror stories session. Diana listened and grew steadily more angry.
Travelling home that evening the Twitchins made for the nearest motorway service station to find that the accessible loo was being refurbished. The temporary loo on offer was in a port-a-cabin, up an extremely steep ramp, and which internally did not offer safe usage by someone with weak arms. This busy motorway service site had only the one purpose built accessible loo. The next accessible loo was 40 miles away.
The above experiences were to prove the catalyst for action! The Disabled Drivers Motor Club's journal printed a brief article from Diana about accessible loos and the need to do something. The resulting letters from disabled people and disabled women in particular, all said the same thing – coping with personal needs was the most difficult part of disability, and the lack of good reliable information about the accessible loos and where they were sited was the biggest barrier to active social lives.
Social mores and attitudes
Non-disabled people use a loo automatically, sitting and standing up from the loo bowl without thought, probably totally unaware of the muscle movement involved. Most hardly notice the siting, design or layout of facilities. Indeed, the design of loos for non-disabled people is straightforward, an enclosed narrow cubicle with room for just one person. It is probable that you only think about the provision of a loo when you need one urgently! You expect a loo to be on offer when socialising, on business, visiting, holidaying. For disabled people, and particularly those using wheelchairs, 'is there an accessible loo?' is a question they ask practically every day. The answer affects their freedom to socialise, work, visit or holiday.
In an age when discussion on sexual matters is quite the norm, discussion of lavatories, toilets, loos, call them what you will, usually declines into giggles and a joke session. Many disabled people have learnt to keep their concerns about coping in ‘away-from-home’ loos to themselves rather than discuss openly the difficulties they face.
Rehabilitation may teach one how to manage in one’s own home, but does not prepare you for the sheer diversity of design or layout of ‘away from home’ loos, or indeed for the paucity of provision. No non-disabled person would put up with the situation that many disabled people face every day in managing their disability.
Additionally there are the social and psychological factors that make dealing with toileting needs more difficult for disabled women than for disabled men. Many disabled men seem to find asking for physical assistance to urinate less difficult than it would be for disabled women to ask for help. Partners and carers trying to provide support and assistance, while maintaining dignity and privacy for the person they are assisting, often long to be able to go out for a day or take a holiday and have access to WC facilities that they can use easily and safely, without hours of pre-planning.
One lady wrote to ITAAL to say ‘for 24 years I had to assist my husband to use "away-from-home" loos and he was so embarrassed for me when we had to go into male facilities together. Sometimes people would be so rude to us. A loo guide would have been so helpful in identifying unisex loos'. It was clear that support for action was there.