You know, the able bodied keep saying that they’re in the handicapped stalls for “a minute or two” and never see anyone who needs to use that stall. On the other hand, people who need that handicapped stall have said that they’ve come across multiple instances where someone’s in that stall.
I suspect, as usual, it’s a minority of users who cause problems for everyone.
I’m a fat guy, and in case you didn’t notice, the regular stalls are pretty small at some places, requiring me to straddle the toilet to open the stall door. I’ll use a urinal to take a leak, but if I have to drop a load, I’m gonna use the biggest stall possible. I’m a quick shitter…just give me a couple of minutes, and get over it.
Well, hey, if you really physically can’t fit in the “normal” stalls then you’ve got a reason to use the big one, right?
Not being able to physically fit into a regular stall without contortionism (or at all) is a legitimate reason for using the larger stall.
Under the social model of disability, it’s society’s unwillingness to take into account the differences in body types and human ability that creates disability, not individual traits. Within that understanding, toilet stalls too small to fit the range of human bodies are definitely disabling.
or go on a diet
There’s big because you’re fat and then there’s big because you’re seven feet tall. He didn’t specify which, and I’m not going to ask.
I’m surprised that people don’t consider an arm in a cast a legitimate handicap. If you saw a one armed person, would you give them the stall? Probably. Yet the one armed person has probably had more time to get use to doing things one armed, and isn’t encumbered with the weight of a cast and the awkwardness of having an arm in a sling.
Geez, you know, I’m not sure it would occur to me to give a one-armed person the big stall, without their asking for it. I’ve always considered those stalls to be designed for people with wheelchairs.
I’d actually give the stall to pretty much anyone who asked for it, figuring if they’re going to ask there must be some reason they want it, but I’m not sure it would occur to me to offer it.
ETA: My point being, I’m not saying an arm in a cast isn’t a “legitimate” handicap, I just am not sure it would occur to me that they need the large stall.
That’s because western society’s concept of disability is so strongly linked to wheelchairs. The internationally recognized symbol of disability is a stick figure in a wheelchair. The limit of accessibility in many places is “wheelchairs can get in.” But the vast majority of disabilities don’t require wheelchair use, and in fact, the vast majority of disabilities, including mobility-limiting disabilities, are invisible. We need to rethink disability in our society, and start recognizing that it comes in many shapes and forms.
OK, sure, but the big stall really does seem to be specifically designed for wheelchair use, with the extra room, big door, high toilet, and handrails. Which is not to say that some of those things could be handy for people with other issues, but I’m guessing a lot of those issues wouldn’t necessarily be obvious to the casual observer, anyway.
The arm thing…I’ve had experience with zero mobility of an arm, and I’m not seeing the need for the giant stall. I believe Annie that it’s something she required, but due to my own experience, I wouldn’t have assumed it, that’s all.
It’s not specifically designed for that use. It’s also designed for people who need assistance who aren’t in wheelchairs, because they need another person in the stall with them, to help them with clothes, to help them sit and stand, to help with hygiene. It’s also designed for people who need extra space because they use a cane, crutches or a walker. It’s also designed for people who need handrails to sit or stand. It’s also designed for people with limited motion in their knees and/or hips and therefore need a raised toilet.
This is exactly what I mean by a wheelchair-centric view of disability. Two minutes of thinking about mobility issues should put paid to a notion of larger stalls being “specifically” designed for anything.
Right, of course all those things are true. But my point is that some mobility issues that would require the big stall are obvious to the casual observer, and some aren’t. Using a walker, yes. Limited motion in their hips, probably not. An arm in a cast, IMO, falls closer to the latter than the former. So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that a person might not realize that a person with their arm in a cast needs the large stall. On the other hand, in the person with their arm in a cast requests to use the large stall, you’d be an asshole to turn them down.
I’m still laughing out loud about this three days later…
Kudos to you…
I don’t have a dog in the handicapped-stall fight, but after having an injury that required me to use a cane for six months several years back, boy am I with you on this. It appeared to me that no one really cared how far out of your way the “disability access” took you, as long as it didn’t involve a step. After all, you’re on wheels, right? It’s no extra effort to wheel three buildings away to get to a ladies’ room on your floor while the elevators are out, right? (They were doing construction around my office, and that really was the closest ladies’ room not closed down. Alternatively, I could have gone up and down two flights of stairs. I passed three men’s rooms on the way to the ladies’.)
If I’m taking some kids to the pool in a very low population-density neighborhood, I have been known to wade into the deep end, so to speak, but to do so with a crowded pool and risk depriving somebody of swimming is just too risky.
I use the handicapped stall even though I don’t look handicapped. I am very tall and have a very arthritic knee. I use the rails to help pull myself up to make it easy on the knee. But to see me walk, you wouldn’t notice a problem (or not once I’ve gotten it warmed up and moving for the day).
I have been on the receiving end of dirty looks from people in wheelchairs for using “their” stall. It would be good for us all to remember that not all handicaps are visible.
I try not to glare at people if they don’t look like they need the stall. But I sometimes DO comment that I need to use THIS stall, the handicapped one, as I need the handgrips. Some of them glare at me, and others seem to be a bit embarrassed. I do walk with a stick or a cane, but otherwise I don’t look handicapped. However, I’ve got a bad knee too. Old football injury, from when I was a little girl. I didn’t tell my parents because I got enough grief from them about playing football anyway.
Are you just joking? Or do you honestly think a handicapped person urgently needing to use the bathroom is analogous to taking kiddies to the local swimming pool? Thanks for the stellar parallel to help everyone grasp the situation.
Correct me if I’m being whooshed, but you do know that “dropping the kids off at the pool” is a euphemism for taking a dump, yeah?