To use the disabled loo to avoid sitting on turds?

[HellHathNoFury]

I was in Sainsburys earlier and in the queue for the loo. I was desperate and waited for a while. Eventually it was my turn, and this little old lady hobbled out and so I went in and saw she had left a whole actual nugget of a turd on the toilet seat.
At the back.

I am PG and it was not something I needed to see so I backed out and legged it off to the disabled loo.

When I came out I was told off by a man in a wheelchair for using the disabled loo. Couldn't be bothered to explain turd incident. Just walked off.

AIBU?

One all.

Anyone else?

BigBellasBeerBelly, you obviously misunderstood me, my thoughts were that you should use the toilets in the dept.
wandering around a hospital looking for toilets it likely to make you miss your turn and/or hold people up while they are loking for you.

Sorry nancy!

So two votes for using the ones in the ante natal dept.

Anyone else?

my ds aged 8 does not 'look' diasbled as he often not in a wheelchir. HOWEVER, he is doubly incontinent and when his catheter needs doing, we just cannot wait at all, should he queue then?

my ds aged 8 does not 'look' diasbled as he often not in a wheelchir. HOWEVER, he is doubly incontinent and when his catheter needs doing, we just cannot wait at all, should he queue then?

Ah but don't forget if an 'able bodied' person has a bout of cystitis / vomiting / diarrhoea etc, then they would be given priority by fellow queuers - people generally aren't monsters you know.

BigBellasBeerBelly the sign is there to show that those toilets are suitable for people with accessibility problems, not to say that only disabled people can use them (it's not like parking a car). So yes, you can use toilets with a sticker on, especially if they're the only ones there!

So, I'm getting the impression that certain posters think that environmental accessibilty features that have been campaigned for by the disability movement, once provided, are solely for the use of disabled people. Does that then mean that parents with prams, or delivery drivers carting boxes on a sackbarrow, should eschew the ramp or the lift and continue to struggle up and down the steps or stairs just because they can? I don't think so.

"Disabled toilets" is a misnomer. They are more properly referred to as "accessible" and this gives a better impression of their purpose. They are accessible to anyone to whom a standard cubicle is inaccessible (whether relatively or absolutely, permanently or temporarily). The rules by which public spaces must be designed these days are not just intended to give access to disabled people but to be accessible to as wide a range of people as possible encompassing a range of abilities and limitations whether caused by height, size, disability or encumbrance.

BBBB, you go ahead and use the toilets in the ante-natal department. Actually, if you really want a definitive answer to that, why not ask the staff at the place? Who knows, they might actually know who the toilets are provided for. I'm willing to bet it has never occurred to them that any visitor to the department would doubt that the toilets were intended for any visitor to use.

MsHighWater, I think you summed it up quite nicely there

mshighwater you said it. (here in Canada we call them 'accessible' toilets.) at my recreation centre, all the toilets are disable accessible toilets. imagine the confusion some of the posters here would encounter; i'm thinking they would likely just pee in the pool to avoid the supposed taboo of using a accessible toilet.

or maybe they would whisper to their bipedal comrade, "where's the... you know... 'normal' toilets."

20mins to change a babies nappy not in my lifetime

So let's call that a final vote of 3 for using ante-natal roilets vs 1 for using the toilets on the ground floor.

I will ask them what the right thing to do is the next time I'm there.

Riven out of interest what should I do in places like my GP surgery where both the toilets are disabled ones and there no non-disabled ones? Obviously "nipping in" is out as per your last post.

I ask as you are one of the people in the "no never" camp (mamazon has gone) and I really don't want to upset anyone and am keen to understand what the solution is in places where there are no non-disabled facilities.

Ah you see, this just strengthens my desire to continue with disposables

Phew, that's a relief (literally!).

Thanks for that, now I'm pretty sure I know what's what so that can only be a good thing

There's no such thing as disabled toilets in the UK, they are ALL accessible!

But Riven, I actually don't think that we would "all have happy bladders" if every public toilet were accessible (and there really is no distinction - they are all accessible, not "disabled"). As I suggested above, if all public toilets were built to the accessible toilet standard, firstly there would be fewer of them (because they take up more space) and there would be only one queue (or one for the ladies and a - probably - much smaller one for the men). So all the people whose disability/ impairment/ pregnancy/ medical condition causes urgency or the risk of embarrassing accidents would - at least at busy times - not be helped at all.

If everyone did as I do - use the accessible loo sometimes but only when no-one whose need is greater than mine would be held up by my doing so - no-one would be inconvenienced. I should say that I do not expect to be able to rely on being able to tell just by looking so if anyone else is showing an interest in the accessible loo, I will not beat them to it whether they "look disabled" or not.

I think it would be an idea if all the people who think life is full of perks for the disabled, acted as a carer for the day. then you will see why disabled people need bigger toilets.

'Accessible toilets' is perhaps a rather stupid term. A bit too PC.

If radar key toilets are only for people with a registered disability, then why can anyone at all buy a radar key (but a disabled person gets a discount)?

That suggests to me, that as the blurb on the radar website explains, the keys are there to protect the toilet from vandalism, not to limit who can use them...

Is there an alternative explanation?