Typical user concerns

ITAAL found that typical user concerns regarding accessible WCs included:

• refusing invitations to social events because no accessible loo is available

'I never went to the pub after work, or joined in the socials. There was never an accessible loo available. I did not have the courage to suggest they found somewhere I could join in.'
- Wheelchair user

• time consuming telephone checks to find out if the available accessible loo is suitable
• always taking the same road route where you know a suitable loo is available
• staying home because of arguments with caring partners who were upset by loo difficulties
• fed up with all the telephoning necessary beforehand to ensure one can use the loos when out either for a day or for holiday
• the dangers of taking at face value written or verbal information, only to find that you still cannot use the facilities
• verbal abuse from the general public for taking carers of opposite sex into male or female facilities to use the adapted cubicles
• users distressed by attitudes they meet when pointing out difficulties to providers, including being told ‘you are being fussy’ or ‘you are not the only user of this toilet’
• inadequate space in loos for the wheelchair user and their care assistant or assistants who have to give practical help
• equipment badly sited within the loo, such as loo bowls,loo flushes, loo roll holders, driers, door closing bars; alarm cords and so on
• loo bowls so low they make it difficult to lift back into one’s wheelchair or stand up
• loo bowls too high that they are unuseable by wheelchair users
• loo bowls that do not allow a portable raised loo seat to be fitted
• wheelchair manoeuvring and transfer space blocked by nappy bins, badly sited bars, protruding brick or woodwork
• the lack of useable space for turning and transfer
• refurbishment of formerly spacious accessible loos resulting in less space, making them less usable by wheelchair users
• accessible loos used as storage cupboards – users having to find someone to clear them, and sit and wait while this is done
• ordinary sized cubicles that have had bars added to the wall and the access sign put on the door. In fact they are not accessible to a wheelchair user, although they may help some ambulant disabled people
• accessible loos that have had equipment for baby change added with no concern for the effect this will have in reducing space needed for wheelchair users