to start an (albeit slightly different to usual) disabled toilets thread?

[RomanKindle]

Can anyone use the baby change in the disabled toilet or is it for people with disabilities to change their children?
I've always just thought it was for anyone but have recently noticed that the tables are low and am now wondering whether that is to make it easier if you use a wheelchair.
I have no disabilties so wouldn't dream of using the disabled toilet myself but is it OK to change a baby in there?

I've changed DS next to the sink in the ladies more than once, rather than bother to ask for the key to the disabled/baby changer... I would imagine people dont like that either though?

any room for one more in that cage?

i also used disabled loos when i was pregnant as well (only when the ladies felt like they were miles away)

Ahh pregnancy is okay, its temporary disability...

I am disabled so I have a legitimate Radar key. This was very useful when DS was in a buggy I must add. There have been times when I didn't have the key when I've wedged the buggy in the cubicle door in an ordinary toilet (very strong those old M&P Pliko 4 wheelers!) and wee'd in the lee of it though. I love the Babykeeper idea!

Just get in the cage Beyond! I will fend for myself.

Also, the changing table may be there for the benefit of disabled people who need help with undressing or with changing of incontinence dressings etc.

I work at a hospital (just on a Wednesday!) and I've noticed EVERY SINGLE LOO is a disabled one. There are no 'ladies' with cubicles, just loads of disabled loos everywhere that open onto corridors/waiting rooms/wards.

Surely able-bodied people, even those without babies needing changing (or babies to pretend need changing) can use these loos!? If not I demand a march for the able-bodied persons right to use the loo at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital!

Question: Where the hell am I supposed to go and pee if I have the baby and buggy with me and I'm out and about? For example in the Trafford Centre?

Answer: The disabled toilets.

It's not a legally binding sign on the door.

I've taken my buggy and baby in many a time. And if I have to change DS2 nappy I'll do it there too if there is no where else. (however there is at the Trafford Centre)

I have never had to ask for a key to open a disabled toilet though?

Why would you need a key? Something worth nicking?

Okay please don't flame me but if there was a very long queue for the ladies and no one in or waiting for the disabled loo you shouldn't use it? Not even for a quick wee? I may done this myself at a festival with a bladder full of beer. Oh I'm going be in trouble now aren't I?

In the cage you go lollilou.

I'm not disabled but my inner anatomy took such a bashing during two pregnancies that if I need the loo, I NEED the loo and will use a disabled toilet if there is no free cubicle. I'm not prepared to have an accident on the off chance that someone will come along in a wheelchair in the three minutes it takes me to go, and that three minutes will be an intolerable wait for them. Unless I have seen someone nearby who looks as though they might need to and even then, I would just be as quick as is humanly possible.

Throw your flames, I'm ready.

Not flaming but I definitely don't think it's on to use the disabled loo 'if you are quick' when you have no disability. My pelvic floor took a decent bashing from my pregnancies but I just make sure I find a loo as soon as I need it and don't leave it until I have to go to the nearest one or piss myself.

Perhaps I should have been clearer sorry - it's not a pelvic floor issue, it's nerve damage. I can't feel that I need to go until I am about to go, and I have almost no ability to hold it in. I go as often as possible to avoid surprises but sometimes there is nothing else I can do.

It's bad practice but they are often in the accessible loo as it's the only unisex facility and it means that it can be used by either parent and don't have to be doubled up. All guidance in the subject recommends that designers try to avoid this where possible or they only do it where there is more than one accessible loo. (accessible is the preferable term to disabled)
Never had the moral dilemma as I'm disabled and a parent. But I have been asked by clients to put them in accessible loos as a designer. I try to avoid it where possible but sometimes it's unavoidable.

Oh I see TPL. I would count that as pretty disabling then.

I don't really see why I should have to apologise profusely to anyone waiting while I change DD if the disabled and baby changing facility are one and the same, if people have a problem with that then take it up with the management of the premises to get a separate changing facility not someone using it for one of its intended purposes.

A disabled loo, is a toilet which is suitable for wheelchair access, that does not mean it is not suitable for anyone who isnt in a wheelchair.

If there was only one toilet in a building and it was suitable for disabled users, would everyone else have to sit and cross their legs? No.

I had thought that one of the reasons that they put the changing table in the disabled was that people complained if they were only in the female toilets. As it presumed that changing nappies was something only women did, not men. There was nowhere for a man to go to change a baby.

since disabled toilets tend to be unisex, putting the changing facilities in there solved that problem nicely. And there is more space in the disabled loo.

I don't think it is a great crime to use the disabled loo for this purpose if you are not disabled. It is also not like you need a blue badge disabled pass to use the disabled toilet. If you are able to, you should use the ordinary ones of course. But I can think of a range of circumstances when a person who is not registered disabled avec badge and all might legitimately use the disabled toilet.

I have to self-administer injections at the moment. Usually I can do this at home but a few times I have been out and about at the appropriate time. In the ladies sometimes the cubicles are too small to sit, arrange clothing, sort out syringe, cotton wool etc and also the lighting is poor. going in the disabled solved that problem nicely and also had a sink for hygiene.

That is just one example and I am sure there are many others.

I work with a young person with a disability, and take him in the disabled loos. Whilst we're in there I often go myself....

should I be getting in the cage?

Was the baby chaning thing small or bigger than usual?

I ask this as in some of disabled toilets now (the newer ones) are starting to get changing beds in.

What a lot of people forget is some people who are disabled wear pads and cant use a toilet and need changing by a carer.

Where I live the new one in the library has a big what would be a fold down child changing mat but its actually for adults.

The only babychange facilities in the public lavs in my local park require a radar key to access.

I am confused by this but am not averse to changing DS on the buggy raincover behind a tree. More to distract him en plein air.

Dont see anything wrong with using a toilet, I dont think the general idea is so disabled people have a special toilet waiting for them at any point they made need it, its more about the space inside and call buzzers etc.

The one that got me thinking was normal sized just slightly lower then usual. It was in M and S and they also have a designated changing room and a pull down table in the ladies (not sure about the mens) so I figured it was just meant for people with disabilities to use.