Why You Should Consider Making Your Restroom More Inclusive (And How To Do It)

Why You Should Consider Making Your Restroom More Inclusive (And How To Do It)

It’s a beautiful day outside, so Dave decides to visit a new city park he hasn’t visited before.  Upon arrival, he’s struck by the care and detail given to the park; everything seems clean and well-maintained.  You can tell that the people who manage this park are well-funded and care about delivering the best experience possible to visitors. Dave is a veteran paralyzed below the waist and uses a wheelchair.  He’d heard a city council member brag about how the park is inclusive for people with disabilities.  Given how well-ordered the rest of the park was, Dave felt confident he was about to have a decent restroom experience upon visiting. Unfortunately, things weren’t quite so pleasant for Dave.  As he entered the restroom, a quarter-inch door threshold made it cumbersome for Dave to wheel inside. Once in the stall, the toilet is at a standard height, which is lower than Dave’s wheelchair.  This means that mounting the toilet requires an awkward drop from his wheelchair, risking a fall off the toilet if Dave doesn’t manage it right.  When Dave tries to leave, he now has to climb up to reach his wheelchair.  Dave is strong and in good shape, but he wonders if an older Dave who isn’t so strong might not even be able to use this restroom. When Dave goes to wash his hands, he struggles because the sink isn’t an ideal height for a wheelchair user.  When looking for the soap, Dave discovers that the dispenser is at the far end of the counter.  A journey for this soap would be a few short steps for most people, but it is extra effort and extra annoyance for Dave. When looking to dry his hands, Dave sees the drier is by the entrance.  Like most wheelchair users, Dave uses gloves to keep his hands from getting filthy.  He puts on his gloves with wet hands, wheels to the drier, takes off his gloves to dry his hands, and puts the gloves back on again. “Just another typical restroom,” Dave thinks.  Dave wonders how anything about this restroom could be considered “inclusive” and is frustrated about the experience.  He feels misled. Here’s the kicker: This restroom that Dave visited meets the code for The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Many restrooms predate ADA and would foster an even worse experience. Some individuals assume that if a restroom meets ADA standards, the user experience for people with disabilities is appropriate and no further adjustments are necessary.  What people don’t realize is that the ADA is a set of minimum standards, and they were set 33 years ago.  Restroom planning needs to go further than the ADA  to create a welcoming and comfortable experience for all.  As difficult and annoying as this experience was for Dave, imagine you are a parent of an adult child with physical and mental disabilities. If your child is challenging to lift and uncooperative, you need a restroom designed for functional needs.  These restrooms often have features like extra space around the toilet for caretakers to assist disabled adults or an adult changing table able to bear the required weight.  While baby changing tables are common, adult changing tables are rare. Many parents and caretakers visit public places, only to find restrooms unusable.

But what can I do about it?

If you’re responsible for a public restroom or are planning a new one, you may wonder how to make your restroom more welcoming for all.  Here are ways you can improve your users’ experience, starting with those requiring the least investment: Tier One: You can’t do a lot, but you want to do something, even if it’s small.

• Design your restroom to be a little larger.  If your restroom is still in the design phase, you can add extra floor space for relatively little cost.  This extra space might allow for a wider stall that allows caretakers to be in the stall with the disabled person to help them make the transition.  The extra space also helps wheelchair users navigate more comfortably.

Note: This restroom is in Canada. The small cabins in this floor plan do not meet the ADA.

• Consider supplementing men’s and women’s rooms with a single-user room or a family restroom unit or cabin.  Compared with partitioned ADA restroom stalls, these are roomier and offer far more privacy.

• Use paper towels instead of air dryers.  Paper towels are popular with the public, and it’s no wonder.  They dry faster, feel better to use, and more effectively limit the spread of germs than air dryers.  Paper towels are also preferable for neuro-diverse people who may be overwhelmed by the noise air dryers make.

 

• Non-slip mats and handholds make your restroom safer and easier to navigate.  Visitors with functional needs will often be more susceptible to slipping and falling than the average person.  Non-slip mats provide traction and reduce the risk of slipping and falling on wet floors.  People who need assistance to walk (canes, etc) will appreciate handholds on the walls.

• Choose automatic faucets and soap dispensers.  Reaching into the sink from a wheelchair is a bit of a pain, automatic faucets and dispensers make things a little more manageable.  These features are also useful for blind people.

• Place your sinks, dispensers, hand driers, and trash bins in as compact of an area as possible.  If it is possible to place all of these things so that a wheelchair user can access them all from a single spot, then you nailed it.

• Choose floor drains and floor designs to prevent puddles.  Wet floors impact wheelchair users more than the average person.

• Instead of off/on lighting, consider recessed (dimmer switch) lighting.  Recessed lighting allows visitors to choose a lighting level that is comfortable for them.  Some visitors may have conditions that make them sensitive to light.

• Consider adding extra grab bars.  The typical grab bars you see in most ADA restrooms simply meet a basic requirement and aren’t optimized for users.  For example, the typical grab bars you find are horizontal, but vertical grab bars are better for pulling and raising.  Having a set of both can give wheelchair users more options to make the transition to the toilet easier.

  Tier Two: Going above and beyond. Ultimately, the most inclusive restrooms are going to be the ones that are designed from the start to be inclusive.  If you are in the design phase for a restroom (or are up for renovating your existing one), here are some things to consider:  

• Fold-down adult changing table.  Adult changing tables are preferable to baby changing ones if you are going for inclusivity.

• Invest in a height adjustable changing table.  Typically changing tables are at a set height, which is fine for changing  a baby.  But lifting an adult is difficult and dangerous.  Having the ability to set an optimal table height can greatly assist caretakers.  Changing tables that raise and lower and can bear up to 500 pounds are commercially available. (https://www.koalabear.com/product-catalog/kb3000-ahl/)

• When designing your restroom, increase the floorspace.  More space means it’s easier for wheelchair users to get around.  A significantly disabled person with caretakers might not even be able to use the restroom unless the floor space is greater than what’s required by the ADA, so adding extra space could be make-or-break for some visitors with disabilities.

• Use single-user cabins or add one between your Men’s and Women’s restrooms as a third option.  Single cabin restrooms provide extra privacy which is often a coveted commodity among special needs visitors.

• Install an automatic (or push button) bathroom door opener for those with disabilities.  For wheelchair users, doors can be a major pain to navigate.  Especially the entrance door, as it tends to be heavy.  Make sure you are willing and able to fix the door opener if it malfunctions.  If not working properly, the door opener will make the door much harder to open.

• If your restroom is indoors and would normally have a standard door, consider using a sliding door.  A sliding door has two benefits- it uses less floorspace and is easier for a wheelchair user to open.  (Green Flush does not offer sliding doors, but for those reading who have indoor restrooms, this is something you might consider.)

• Height adjustable toilets (and sinks) are the best toilets for wheelchair users.  The average toilet will either be too high or too low, causing an awkward plopping transition from chair to toilet.  Here’s an example from Walraven: https://www.walraven.com/en/sanitary-systems/bis-vario/

• If height-adjustable isn’t something that you can do, then consider height variety.  Higher toilets are easier for wheelchair users, and also those with weak knees or similar ailments.  Lower toilets will be better for small children.  Having a variety of toilet heights is more inclusive than one-size-fits-all.

• Place your mirrors and sinks at a lower height.  This makes them usable for anyone seated in a wheelchair.  If you have multiple sinks, it’s okay to have most of them at normal height and one of them at a lower height.

• Invest in slip resistant flooring.  Those with disabilities or difficulty walking are more impacted by slippery floors. Make sure the floor is textured, such as concrete with a broom finish.

• For the visually impaired, sound navigation systems can be a great help.  And they will certainly give your restroom a state of the art impression to visitors.  Such a system allows visitors to hear verbal descriptions that guide them to the toilet.  A visually impaired person can avoid stumbling around while looking for one.  A person using SmartApp VI can hear these instructions through a discreet earpiece so that only they hear the audio description of the layout.  You can hear an example of the message here.  https://smart-technology.org.uk/our-technology-v1-srp-embedded-encryption-protocol/smart-toilet-beacon-from-smart-technology/

  Tier Three: Maximum Accessibility In the UK, there is a special designation for a restroom, called the “changing places” toilet.  These are some of the most accessible restrooms that exist and are specially designed not only for people with disabilities but also for their caretakers.  The rooms are extra spacious, with the toilet placed in the center of the wall rather than in the corner.  This allows multiple caretakers to help someone onto the toilet if necessary.  Grab bars can fold down on both sides of the toilet.  Most impressively, there is a hoist system that can pick up visitors to place them on the toilet or changing table.  For more details on what might be the gold standard for accessibility, check out https://www.changing-places.org/. We recommend visiting their site and seeing what a maximally accessible restroom looks like, it’s definitely not what most people would be used to. As we’ve covered, there are lots of ways to make your restroom more accessible for all.  If this is something that interests you, please contact our Green Flush team at info@greenflushrestrooms.com.  We’ll help you build a more accessible restroom that can be used by all of your visitors. Edit: Some additional comments:

• When possible, try to have drop down grab-bars on both sides for support.
• Try to avoid having steel toilet flush valves behind the toilet seat as they can cause injury during transfer
• Consider adding a padded back rest. These can make a dramatic difference in the comfort level for wheelchair users. The picture below is an example of what a toilet back rest might look like.