to continue using the disabled facilities at my local pool?

[HedgehogsDontBite]

Our new local pool has a separate changing room for people with disabilities. I was using them when I was there with toddler DS today. A member of staff politely told me that I should be using the family changing room next door. Now I feel bad for using it.

The reason I use it is because the family changing room is very busy and noisy and opens onto the big pool area which is also really busy and noisy and I can't cope with it. The other is small and nearly always empty and opens directly into the smaller not so busy training pool.

The disabled facilities appear to be geared up just for people with physical disabilities. Is it wrong to use them because I have ASD?

Brill link youarekiddingme I know quite a few people who would benefit from that card.

I really cannot imagine why people think they are only for people with physical disabilities.

Thanks youarekiddingme, that's what I was thinking of. English will be fine I think, most people here speak it better than me.

I think some people here are missing the fact that OP stated that the disabled changing area isn't a cubicle, it's just a smaller open area - so she isn't preventing anyone else entering it at all. Other people can use it while she is in there.

And even if it was a single cubicle... the very worst that would happen should a disabled person turn up wanting to use it is that they would have to wait a while until it was vacated. It certainly doesn't mean that other disabled people can never go there.

She most certainly is not being unreasonable to use it herself, especially since other's are free to use it at the same time as her.

ASD is not a "non physical" disability. Well not for my DD anyway

It does seem a shame, though, that changing rooms that are especially (and expensively) equipped for wheelchair users often can't be used by them because they are being used by people with non-physical disabilities.

These facilities are suitable for people with different disabilities in different ways. The fact that there are physical adaptations which make them suitable for your DD doesn't prevent them from making the pool accessible for other people with different sorts of disabilities.

It is a shame that you feel your DD can't always use the pool because the facilities aren't always available when you need them. However, it would be more of a shame if other people could never use the pool because they weren't ever allowed to use the facilities that made their visits possible due to their disabilities being less apparent to others.

The plain fact is that these facilities are designed to make the pool more accessible to those who need them. If you cannot access the pool without them, they are designed for you and you are entitled to use them.

People who say their kid has ASD but they wouldn't use it well fair enough, some children may not need it. Other children and adults with ASD will and for legitimate reasons.

I find swimming pool changing rooms really hard to cope with for lots of reasons. Trying to manage them with asd must be awful. Yanbu to use the disabled changing rooms I would!

Do not want to hijack this thread but I have a query about the disabled changing facilities. It isn't an issue as yet as ds2 is only 6 so can come in with me in the ladies changing rooms but he is dyspraxic and there is a possibility that he is asd too, although those issues are being out under the dyspraxic diagnosis at the moment. He has a poor working memory, getting him dressed in the morning can take half an hour of constant reminders from me to get done. Unless this improves I worry how things will go when he has to be on his own in a men's changing room if I go on my own with him. Would his dyspraxia diagnosis be a reason to use it? I fully accept it wouldn't be, just a query? We mainly use a pool with family changing rooms, but I believe our council run one does not have family changing rooms, just seperate sex ones.

I have ms and am therefore disabled though it doesn't really show much, you'd have to watch me.

You have a disability and therefore have every right to use the disabled facilities.

Sadly, some people are just ignorant. Can you call the pool and ask them to ensure that their staff understand that not allisabilities are visible, or write a letter.

I go to our gym but they know me and so the staff all know I'm disabled and are very helpful. Sadly, our changing facilities run to a chair being in there, which lots of people think is for them to put their clothes/bags on (and they get shirty if you ask them to move their stuff) but not everyone's like that.

Do you really want to flash a card at people? If that works for you, then great, but I know I'd lose mine

How do you cope in the pool if you can't cope in the changing rooms? Not meaning to be flippant but I can't see the difference

Totally agree fanjo my DS is waiting for official assessment and dx for ASD. Saw a physio today re his hip/ ankle problems. Straight away he put them down to his collapsed arch and said insoles will correct it (has these already from podietry). However he had in first 10 minutes after assessment and asking me questions said he has dyspraxia in his opinion (mild and in addition to ASD). Things such as low muscle tone, poor motor planning. All things that are common with ASD.

Hence why he needs physical support with some things despite the fact he is highly intelligent. You just cannot judge by looking at someone.

I've decided we need t shirts with the following printed on it!

You have a disability which means that this facility is appropriate for you, so you are definitely not being unreasonable.

If you would find it easier to carry a card than explain face-to-face then that would be a good idea.

You might also want to consider writing a letter to the pool manager, explaining that not all disabilities are physical or visible, and perhaps the staff need some training about how to make the facilities inclusive for all.

surely if you just mention to the staff when going in and asking if the facilites are free to use it wouldn't be a problem, though i suppose they cannot tell when someone with physical disabilities would need to use it..

Would his dyspraxia diagnosis be a reason to use it?

This is your decision to make and nobody else's.

If using the changing room would be necessary in order for him to use the pool, you are entitled to use it.

I have a very articulate and intelligent 11YO with AS who looks NT to the casual observer. She cannot cope with public toilets or changing rooms, even ones with cubicles. If we couldn't use disabled changing rooms at swimming pools, she wouldn't go swimming. Therefore I have no qualms using them despite the looks we get on the way in and out.

Yes youarekidding. If ASD is a non physical disability it's strange my DD still struggles going downstairs and is only just starting to be able to sometimes use a fork and spoon at age 8

I use the disabled changing room with Ds who has severe autism and learning difficulties. He cannot cope with the noise in the family changing room (cannot cope being hurting himself and attacking me).

Yanbu you have a disability and if that means using the disabled changing room to make it easier for you then I see no problem using it.

If a physically disabled person came along they would have to wait their turn just like if I went to use the changing room and there was none free I would have to wait.

No no she shouldn't have to ask staff if facilities are free to use like someone in wheelchair has priority.

How do you cope in the pool if you can't cope in the changing rooms?

The pool is a completely different sensory experience and my DD spends a great deal of her time under water enjoying the deep pressure it brings and avoiding the noise on the surface.

But I forgot. .people with ASD are just shy and good at Maths.

Dusty My DS has AS and dyspraxia, he doesn't have problems with swimming pool changing rooms however there are some ways in which he needs extra help. Our council runs a scheme for young people with SNs, they get a membership card to carry and can show it at all council run places (sports centres essentially) and get access to special sessions of activities, concessions on entry fees etc. I am sure that if he needed to use disabled changing the staff would be happy to let him if he showed his card, worth finding out if your council does the same. Your sports centre may be able to tell you about it, or the council website (ours is county council but gives discounts in district council facilities).

fanjo my most favourite ever summing up of DS came from his year 5 teacher who was, quite simply, bloody amazing! "DS is the only child I know who could solve a quadratic equation in his head but yet cannot tie a shoelace!"

In the changing rooms there are hairdryers, hand dryers, lockers banging, people chatting, lots of smells, temperature variation with doors opening and closing, lots of textural variation in floor, drying with a towel etc. it means that with a heightened senses you're very very over stimulated.

In the pool you are not confined spatially, physically you're supported by the water so a little less stimulated that way, the noise is more dispersed and is more restricted to chattering and water splashing type noises. You can also duck under the water to cut this down. If the chlorine dosing is okay the smell overload is also lower.

Ds can cope with the noise in the pool because it is not such an enclosed space, he can see where the noise is coming from and he likes being in the water enough to ignore some discomfort from the noise.