What I taught my daughter (who is disabled with CP and uses crutches or, sometimes, a wheechair) is that she should wait in line if the line extends (as it sometimes does) out the door. She should stay in line until the line clears the little "foyer’ that so many ladies rooms have. Once she’s into the actual room with the stalls, she should consider herself next in line for the handicapped stall. Works like a charm. Occasionally, the person exiting the Handicapped stall will be embarrassed to see her waiting and will apologize. "Not at all, " she’s been taught to say, “It’s an accessible stall, but you have as much right to use it as me.”
May I call you Bippy?
On to the response…
‘Usable’ seems to be the key word in this sentence. Some of those regular stalls are designed so horridly that nobody but a contortionist would find them ‘usable’ under normal circumstances. The ones here at work are so small, and so short, that the only way to shut the door once you’re in them is to back up until you have one leg on each side of the toilet, which means pretzel twisting your legs around the gigantic industrial sized toilet paper dispenser and the metal trash can that sticks at least 5" off the opposite wall of the stall. The stalls are so shallow from wall to door that the door damn near scrapes the front of the toilet when you open it. Insanity.
And while I’m complaining about the restrooms at work, I want to know who the hell decided that nobody over 4’ tall works here and put the sinks somewhere around the height of my lower thigh. I am 5’9" tall. The sinks in the restroom are so low that to use them comfortably I’d have to be sitting down, and if I’m not sitting down, I end up with wet knees and my required ID badge which must hang around my neck has to fall into the sink. I can see putting in a couple of lowered sinks for the handicapped people, but in a restroom with 8 sinks, do all 8 of them need to be so close to the floor?
Another thing is the stupid faucets. The water outlet of the faucet is approximately 2 inches from the back of the sink. Just how the hell am I supposed to get my hands under that faucet without running into the back of the sink bowl? Whoever designed the restrooms here should be shot.
I have this problem sometimes. It’s not like I wait till the last possible second to go, either. Sometimes when I head for the restroom as soon as the urge hits, by the time I get there, my legs are twisted up together and I’m trying real hard not to piss myself. Because I understand how this condition feels (and how much the sounds of running water make it worse in my case) when it’s *not *like that, I’ll let someone else so afflicted go ahead of me.
Doesn’t bother me either. I have used the men’s room when I absolutely positively could not wait for the women’s room, and I’ve got no problem with the men using the women’s room. As long as nobody pisses in the sink, it’s all good.
It was only recently that I was struck by the realization that while every public bathroom, just about, has a stall for disabled users, and many have insulated sink piping to protect users of electrified wheelchairs, but just about all bathrooms still have the two doors that you either have to push or pull to go through.
How the heck is someone in a wheelchair supposed to do that?
In another discussion community, a member related being verbally abused by a handicapped person who came in and found the stall occupied by her, an able-bodied user. As people chimed in with their thoughts, a number of people pointed out that in some bathrooms, the changing table or toddler seat is located in the handicapped stall. Clearly it’s designed to be used by more than just those who need a handicapped-accessible facility.
Just don’t bring a magazine in with you. 
You can call me anything 
Get liberated people who needs restrooms, there is always some quiet corner wher you can …ahhhhh
Oh, sure, we let you in once and you start telling us what to do.
With their arms, I suspect. I also suspect it’s a pain in the ass, but doable for most. I know I can get through most doors on my scooter, though it’s a pain, so I don’t see why somebody in a chair wouldn’t be able to assuming they have use of their arms.
I don’t camp out in a handicap stall, but if I need a quick pee, I have no problem using them assuming there isn’t somebody already in the bathroom who’s in a chair.
I’m pretty sure the changing tables get stuck in the stalls sometimes simply because the stalls are big enough to accomodate them.
I was referring more to men coming in to use the women’s room. Yes, the sinks are really close to the floor. No, that doesn’t mean they are urinals.
I thought it would be to awkward to reach forward to do it from a sitting position though.
As others in this thread have said, no, bathrooms for persons with disabilities are not reserved for their exclusive use. I use one at my office every day and have no mobility disabilities. Nor does anyof the other employees at my location.
The only other facility that I have seen besides legally-designated parking spaces that ARE reserved, are the seats near the front of buses. If the purshcase of the buses was funded in any part by the federal government (and most are), they are now required to be reserved for persons with disabilities either permanently or non-disabled people must move from them if a person with a disability boards (or moves forward) and wants to sit there.
I wouldn’t say it’s unethical, like taking a bribe or killing someone. I might say it can be really irritating if you’re the one that can only fit into the one stall out of five, and kind of jerk-y of the person doing it. There are some reasons that people have mentioned that I would let slide. If there’s no other reason than not wanting to take a few extra steps to reach a regulation sized stall or just enjoying the extra room when the regular stalls provide adequate room, then I would say that would classify someone as a jerk.
Here’s a post I made in another thread that is related to this subject:
I understand that if someone’s got to go, they’ve got to go. If there are any other stalls, and there isn’t shit smeared all over the place, use the other stall. If you are going to be a while, but can hold it, then hold it. Paralysis can make those things difficult for me. I’ve been in a bathroom before with five stalls. When I went into the bathroom, two were occupied. One was the handicapped stall. I sat and waited, and waited, and waited. People kept walking in and out, using the other stalls, but the guy in the handicapped stall was taking his time. I didn’t know if it was someone who was handicapped, so I sat and waited politely. I kept looking at the ground while I was waiting, and a guy came up and patted me on the shoulder. He asked how I was doing, and if I needed some help. I told him I was OK. I think he figured it out, because he went up and knocked (banged?) on the stall door, and said, “There’s a guy in a wheelchair out here waiting for this stall.” The guy finished up and came walking out.
Another time, at a baseball game I was second in line. The next stall to open up was the handicapped stall. The guy in front of me went in. At the time, I didn’t realize it was the only handicapped stall. Once I realized I couldn’t get into any of the other stalls, I sat and waited while I let others keep passing me for the one stall out of ten (eleven, twelve?) would become vacant.
Look out for Seals being broken, a quartet of Horsemen, etc- because I agree 100% with- and applaud- this post by DtC.
:eek:
I use them all the time if there’s no one on line with a handicap. Since I typically travel complete with a stroller and toddler I find the handicapped stall is the only one big enough to accommodate both me, a toddler and the stroller.
Otherwise I’m completely stuck in a narrow stall that has no place to park the stroller and no place to put the toddler.
On Saturday I attended an event in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast - the first time I was inside the place. I was unhappy to see only one disabled toilet - which was also a baby-changing room. So I was preceded by a queue of [mostly] fathers with infants who needed changing. In large venues like that, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have separate facilities for babies, as a lot of children’s events are held there?
Also, people kept coming up to me [I am not in a wheelchair] and pointing out that there were plenty of facilities free in the ladies toilets. So I had to point out, over and over, that there were steep steps, with no suitable handrails, just inside the door, and then, when people offered to help me down the steps, I had to explain that I needed the grab rails in the disabled toilet so that I could sit down and stand up again without assistance. TMI to give to perfect strangers without being totally embarrassed.
Later, when I heard the mayor give his little speech just before we ate, and he boasted that this was Europe’s No. 1 venue, I was left with the thought that perhaps European designers could give more thought to the disabled.
Many people in wheelchairs (e.g. me) don’t have much difficulty with doors. Pushing doors is easy - turn the knob if there is one with one hand and ram your wheelchair forward with the other (I’m not the gentlest person in the world - one of these days I need to get myself some steeltoed shoes :-)). Pulling is harder but if they’re not too strongly sprung I rarely have problems especially if I can position myself to one side of the door so I can pull it open and pull myself through at the same time.
Not really – once you get it started, you can use your chair or other vehicle to keep it open. Doors that swing out are easier for me to manage when I’m not on foot. If the setup is really, really awkward, I can get off the scooter and walk it through, while I curse the idiot who designed it. I mean, I can stand up, I just use the scooter for long distances.
I really like those bathrooms where there’s no door, just a hallway with a couple of turns in it to get in or out.
Put me down as someone who never uses the handicapped bathroom stalls. I wouldn’t use the handicapped parking stalls, either, even if I only needed the spot for “a minute.”
In '97, my Mom passed. In the months leading up to her passing, I gave many silent prayers for bathrooms with large enough stalls, that 2 people and a walker or wheel chair could fit into. Not that I’d frown upon anyone else that uses them, as there’s no way of knowing their situation. I was just greatful when they were empty, when my Mom needed to use them.