Take your own potty with you!

[paulapan]

Hi all , want to know the law about Disabled toilets? Was in a restaurant yesterday and asked to use the Disable toilets, Well was i in for a surprise!!! YES' the girl said , just go out the main door , go up steep the hill , then the two flights off steps,go into our other restaurant and there is a lift that will take you up to the Disable toilets!!!! ( this is not a joke!) When i asked her why did they not have Disable toilets in this restaurant she said "we don't need to provide them !! So what is the law? thanks,

[Hidden]

Hi Paula

Don't know whether this will help at all, but my understanding is that any restaurant should make provision for accessible disabled loos UNLESS the age and design of the buiding makes this impossible. If you have any complaints, you could always contact Disability Rights Commission who are always very helpful.

For example, building regulations, such as Part M of the Building Act 1984, require a toilet to have minimum dimensions to cater for a wheelchair, and a carer.

The minimum dimensions for a disabled toilet cubicle is 2.2m by 1.8m, and must have a turning circle of 1.5m in diameter to accommodate a wheelchair.

There is no universal law governing the amount of toilets needed in a building or what floor they should be on. However, any company that can expect disabled people to be using its building needs to provide toilet facilities, and make them accessible for disabled people to reach from a car park, or the front of the building, completely unaided.

The worst provider of disabled loos I have ever encountered is Total Fitness - when I needed the loo I had to be taken out of the back of the pool, wheeled round to the front, in to use the loo and then back again!! I successfully got all my membership fees back!

Jeanx

[Andrea_Shapiro]

I went into a supposed disabled loo a week ago: there was no toilet paper, and the taps didn't work at the sink. Shows you what they think of us!

[Hidden]

I went to one last night with no mirror!! do they think you dont want to look at your self or something.. or that if you are blind.. I hasten to add I dont like to consider myself disabled... the ladies toilet at the pub had been refittied and converted into a disabled toilet . with a baby changing station!. ideal if you are disabled and have a a baby? so not such a bad idea .

Only the occupational health nurse and Gp condsider me disabled. I call it a chronic illness.. the dwp dont consider me disabled either!.(no DLA ( the form was filled in when v bad)

[Andrea_Shapiro in reply to Hidden]

I become just as enraged with misuse of disabled lavs as I do with disabled parking spaces. I encountered (in work!) a 40 minute wait to get in, as a colleague was using it to put their face on and get changed for a night out straight after work, "because there's more space in there!". It had a lovely, long mirror. I can see how beautiful I am, and don't mind the disability factor: don't take any mind of having a label, Summer, as it's how you feel within yourself that's important.

[cathie in reply to Hidden]

Yes, a well meaning person suggested I apply for a disabled parking card, which given the blue meanies in Edinburgh could be very helpful when my partner is here with his car. But I wouldnt qualify so I suppose my pride was salvaged.

[Philip]

I went into the New Meseum of Liverpool the other day and the disabled toilets there were amazingly huge, in fact I could have opened my own cafe in there lol.

[Hidden in reply to Philip]

phillip do you ride?.. then ..

Alison