I have to confess, sometimes the handicap stall of public restrooms looks tempting to use. It is spacious and comfortable. And plus, if you have alot of packages with you, and you have no one to leave them with, you can simply take them all in with you.
But I sometimes wonder. Using handicap parking spaces is illegal, and can get you a hefty fine where I live–which is good. I think people should be strongly advised not to use those. But is it illegal to use handicap restroom stalls too? And as long as I am bringing the subject up, does anyone think that using handicap stalls is unethical? Yes, obviously you shouldn’t race someone in a wheel chair to one. But if you get their long before some handicapped person does, say, and you inconvenience them by a few seconds–is that wrong?
I dont think its ilegal , but its probably only unethical if you knowingly use a handicapped accessible stall , when the proper stall is also available and a handicapped person arrives in need.
The toilet is a totally different scenario from the parking space. Your use of the space makes it completely unavailable to the handicapped person. Your use of the toilet makes it temporarily unavailable to the person. There is no reason to assume that a handicapped person can’t wait their turn to pee.
The point of the special stall is to have facilities on site that the handicapped can use, not to have facilities set aside for the handicapped. There is no reason to set aside the toilet, there is plenty of reason to set aside a parking space, apples and oranges.
This reminds me of a time I was in a museum, the ladies room had a HUGE line, and right next to it was a unisex handicapped bathroom that nobody was using. :rolleyes: Just go pee, and if a person in a wheelchair shows up, they can go next. Now if you’re gonna spend a half hour in there with your newspaper, take the regular stall.
Yes. My sister is handicapped, and she’s never been put out by anyone else using a handicapped stall.
Think of what a waste of resources it would be if ONLY handicapped people could use that stall. Longer lines to go pee, for one thing. What sense does it make to not use a handicapped stall when there is NO handicapped person in sight? And what about those small bathrooms with only two or so stalls? (One handicapped, one not.) Is it right to cut the amount of really viable stalls in half (1 instead of 2 stalls) just because maybe, sometime, once in a blue moon, a handicapped person may need to take a pee (which takes, how long? Two minutes?). And for the rest of the time that stall goes unused while people are lining up to use the other one? What a waste! It makes no sense.
I’ve never heard use of a handicapped stall being illegal. Even in California! If someone is there in a wheelchair, you let them use it first. If you’re alone in the bathroom, knock yourself out.
I’m able-bodied, but claustrophobia is my handicap, so I use the big stall. At least that’s what I’m gonna tell the guy in the wheelchair waiting on me - if this ever comes up.
As a daddy with a 3 year old, I almost always use the handicap stall when we’re out so that I have enough room to maneuver around with the kid (if he needs to have a BM).
Seriously though, I’ve always been under the impression that the handicap stall is meant to be accessible to those in a wheelchair, but not necessarily reserved for them.
Nothing illegal/immoral about it, as pointed out by others. If I was waiting in line for the bathroom, and a person in a wheelchair entered, I would certainly offer to let them into the handicapped stall ahead of me (I’ve worked with handicapped folks in the past, and it takes a good bit of time for them to get out of the wheelchair, onto the toilet, etc. which means for them time is of the essence), but I use handicapped stalls all the time. When I was pregnant, my belly was so big (honestly) that if the stall was small and the door opened inward (towards the toilet), I couldn’t stand in the stall and close the door!! Also, when I take my three-year-old in the bathroom, I always use the handicapped, because there’s enough room for both her and I in there.
I used to think this way also, until a disabled Doper pointed out in a similar thread that yes, indeed, sometimes it can be difficult or impossible for a handicapped person to wait – for example, if his or her bladder sensation is affected.
My family went on a trip to Disney World when I was 14. We came across ladies’ rooms that had HUGE lines…and yet, no one would use the handicapped stall! In some places, it must be seen as unethical…there were no signs or people directing us to leave that stall open that I could see. I’ve never seen that attitude anywhere else, though.
The answer to this is to direct such an individual to the front of the line, and allow them to be the next person to use the handicapped stall. This, I can accept, keeping the stall unused while a giant line forms for the bathroom, that’s just silly.
Probably just because it was so public. Nobody wanted to be the first one to go into the handicapped stall.
As for me, I would’ve just strolled on in. I have as much right to use a working bathroom as any handicapped person. I actually use the handicapped stall most places I go, and I feel no guilt whatsoever. I’m a very big guy, so quite often the handicapped stall is the only one where I can actually sit on the toilet comfortably. (I’m virtually certain the people who install TP dispensers are cross-eyed.)
I’ve been doing this for years, and never, not once has a handicapped person come along and had to wait for me. If you really think about the ratios of handicapped bathrooms versus the number of handicapped people, it is much in their favor.
You know Lizard, at the time, I thought that it might be a necessary rule in some places. I mean, we lived in Montana, which has a very low population density. If no able-bodied people used the handicapped stall there, it might not be used for weeks, so that’s why we could use it at home. However, in a higher-density area, you come across more handicapped people. Perhaps even enough to make it impolite to occupy the handicapped stall, lest it be needed.
Perhaps you only get to that particular population density at Disney World. My little sister did charge ahead and go once, and she was certainly glared at, even though she was only 10 years old and probably really, really had to go.
It ain’t illegal or unethical, but it can be darn uncomfortable. Some HC-WCs ( ) have raised potties, to facilitate transfer from chair-to-chair, so to speak. I’m 6 foot tall, & I find them uncomfortable to use.
It can’t be illegal, else there’d be one of those handicapped signs on the door.
On the other hand, I think it’s a bit rude for a non-handicapped person to use the handicapped stall if there’s a non-handicapped stall available. You never know when a handicapped person will come in, need to go, and can’t, because someone else is using the stall. And I say this after having been the offending perp on that scenario once; mea culpa.
So far, I don’t see the difference in restricting parking spaces but not stalls.
The stall is only temporarily unavailable… well, so are parking spaces.
They can wait their turn to get the good stall… same goes for parking spaces.
Maybe we should change handicapped parking spaces law to say that if you are NOT handicapped, then you can only park in the space for 10 minutes or less.
I try not to use the handicapped stalls, but most of the regular stalls are too small (I’m 6’3, 300 lbs). In the handicapped stall, I tend to be in and out alot faster than in a regular stall (if the bathroom is empty, if it’s busy, I’m in and out as well).
) have raised potties, to facilitate transfer from chair-to-chair, so to speak. I’m 6 foot tall, & I find them uncomfortable to use.