I once got reprimanded for using a handicap stall. There was no line and it was the only empty when I entered. Upon exit there was a grumpy person in a wheelchair that scolded me for using that stall.
So I’m a little bitter. In truth, I’d let a handicap person cut in line. But those stalls aren’t set aside for them only. I’ll poop where I please damnit.
Edit: Good crap I hate it when my life mirrors Larry David
Yep, that’s me too. I figure if you ask me, then you gotta go and go really bad! So if anyone asked–sure go ahead!
Yes, I would let a diasabled person go first, but there’s a difference bewteen disabled and merely having a temporary injury.
I know there are lots of different types of disabilities - please note that I didn’t say all disabled people are physically incapable of using regular stalls.
And yeah, if the entrance is too narrow, the stall too small, or the stairs too many - and all these factors are common - then someone in a wheelchair is not going to be able to use the regular toilets. Ye canna change the laws of physics, cap’n.
I voted yes, but I’d have a hard time resenting anyone who didn’t let them go ahead of them. For all I know, the seemingly able-bodied woman up ahead is pregnant and needs to pee really bad, or has arthritis and needs the higher toilet seat.
They’re also not ‘toilets reserved for disabled people so they don’t have to wait like everybody else.’
When I was 15 I my broke my arm at the elbow and wore a sling for maybe 2 months. No cast (there was an operation with pins and screws) but basically I was down to one arm for a while. I don’t remember ever needing the handicapped stall, I seriously don’t think it even occurred to me. If fact I remember reading previous handicapped stall threads and thinking to myself “Wow, aren’t I lucky that I’ve never been in that situation!” So yeah, unless this is a large shoulder brace with metal rods sticking out, it would not occur to me that someone with an arm cast would need or want to use the handicapped stall. If they asked then sure (and yeah, if anyone asks then I’m probably not going to question them) but I don’t think someone’s a jerk because they don’t automatically assume the guy with the arm cast needs special accommodation.
If I’m next in line and the handicapped stall opens up, and I see a person behind me (within three or four people), who appears to need it, I’d ask them if they wanted to go next. This would include a mom with a couple small kids and/or a stroller.
Yeah, in the US, as I’ve now discovered. In the UK that’s exactly what they are, and it’s not just being nice to the poor ickle cripples, it’s because some disabilities cause incontinence problems and some cause pain while standing, so those people do have good reasons for jumping the queue.
I’m surprised it’s the US which is crap in this regard compared to the UK - I thought you lot’d be better.
It’s hard to say. Some handicaps are not visible. What about the person with a colostomy bag who is having problems? You can’t see her disability, but should someone with a visible disability go in front of her? As people wave the other person to go first, does she have to speak up and say she is disabled, too, and explain her medical history? What about the person who has IBS or Crohn’s who may not need the larger stall, but needs to get into some stall ASAP? It’s not that disabled people shouldn’t go first, but as with handicapped license plates, you can’t tell by looking.
No, it can’t.
You always express your thoughts so well. 
This is what I was trying to say.
Well somebody better tell my niece who has been in a wheelchair for the past 8 years. I have been with her out and about and heard her complain that there wasn’t a HC toilet and she was able to do it. "How’ I have no idea as I didn’t ask her, so I am basing it on what she stated at the time. Lots of older buildings built prior to the enactment of the ADA and FHA don’t have HC toilets, and aren’t required to unless they update the buildings. So I assumed that since my niece could use the toilet there pretty much anyone ‘could’, although it wouldn’t be ideal. I may indeed be incorrect about that. So I have never done a study to determine if someone in a wheelchair could use a regular stall. Mainly because I provide a HC stall as required. But my main point stands that the HC stall isn’t the same as HC parking space in that it is for the exclusive use of those individuals with disabilities.
However this being the dope, of course everyone is focusing on a miniscule portion of the main point. And actually something I never initially stated, what I originally stated was that someone with a HC could use a regular stall. And that is true as there are lots of disabilities.
I never stated originally that someone in a wheelchair could use a regular stall but I did see I did state that in my second response to SciFiSam. So you may very well be correct about the wheelchair part, but again I am not sure what my niece did in order to use that restroom!
Oh and SciFiSam–the US has two laws that deal with public accommodation on disability issues. The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and The Fair Housing Act (FHA). Both are pretty exhaustive and address directly the issues that you brought up. I will have to ask a couple of British Architects I know about the point you made. I find it hard believe that you would be required to provide a HC accessible fixture available ONLY to the disabled as that seems going way beyond accommodation. Based on what you are stating you could have a toilet say on an office floor that NEVER gets used as that floor doesn’t have anyone with a disability on it? Interesting but I would need to independently verify that before I believed it.
So if someone who is not disabled just has to go really really badly, they should have to wait? No of course not. Disabled, not disabled, it is up to that person to tell those in front of them if they really need to use it now. You say the US is “crap in this regard”, I think it’s a bit silly to have a stall reserved solely for those who are disabled sitting there empty while making everyone else wait on line, even those able-boded people who gasp may have a good reason to jump to the front as well.
Tell you what, meet me at the Mohegan Sun, Ill bring my wheelchair and let you try to go pee in a nonhandicapped stall. And if you want, just wrap your knees with ace bandages until you cant really bend them, and then try taking a pee on a low toilet like they use in nonhandicapped stalls. You will change your mind when you can neither sit down or stand up unassisted.
See, now you’re saying that only someone in a wheelchair is handicapped. Is that what you meant?
(Excuse the snark, but I thought Hakuna Matata was reasonably clear that he was considering other handicaps as well.)
Are you a man? If you are then your memory is playing tricks on you. The diaper changing tables have never been inside any stall of any mens room I’ve been in, and I’ve had 3 kids worth of shitty diapers to change in public. They are always near the sink.
Is this a problem in womens shitters?
A man named Alice? Uh, no. No I’m not.
And it is a problem in women’s ‘shitters’. Probably because in women’s washrooms there are ONLY stalls - no nifty urinals. More often than not the one diaper deck is in the largest stall - AKA the HC stall.
As someone who can use a regular stall if need be, but with two bum knees and a bad back finds the higher commode in the HC stall much easier, I would let anyone with a visible disability, pregnant, accompanying small children or was doing the pee-pee dance in front of me in line. I might choose to wait myself until the big stall opened up again to go, but to me, whoever is in the most need of it has priority.
BTW, most of the time, the bum knees and bad back aren’t that noticable to most, only on bad days, but the HC stall is still more accomodating. I’ve had other women step aside for me on some of those and was grateful.
If you’re disabled in a way that you can’t use the other stalls, then, yes, you should have access to the disabled stall before other people. Otherwise, people behind you will be skipping ahead while you wait for one sole stall. That actually places the disabled person at a disadvantage. So would you rather give a disabled person an unfair advantage or an unfair disadvantage?
The only alternative is to have all stalls equipped for the disabled, which would be fair for everyone, but is totally unrealistic.