A Mother’s Petition To David Cameron For Changing Places Toilets

Dear David
I’m writing to you about my daughter and how I want to make her future a brighter one. My girl is 5 and has global development delay, is non-verbal and a wheelchair user. She is also one of the happiest little girls I know, however, as her mum I can see a big black cloud on her journey through life. My daughter is unable to maintain a sitting balance and is unable to tell me when she needs the loo, she is therefore still in nappies. Now when I have to change her in disabled public conveniences I am more and more often faced with the challenge of either changing her on a baby changing table and hoping that it wont break because she’s not the size of your average baby, or changing her on the toilet floor. More and more often it’s the latter, which is unsanitary, unhygienic and in my mind inhumane as well as undignified. I don’t know what body fluids may have spilled there, or what might have come in on someone’s wheelchair wheels, this in my eyes is a completely unacceptable and unreasonable situation for anybody to be exposed to. I am also aware that each time I move and handle her in this way I am putting myself at risk of an acute back injury and this will become more of a risk as she gets older and bigger, how people manage to change adults in this way beggars belief.

Currently British Standards recommends the following…

BS 8300:2009 Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people was published on the 27th February 2009, and recommends that Changing Places toilets should be provided in larger buildings and complexes,
such as:
a) major transport termini or interchanges, e.g. large railway stations and airports
b) motorway services
c) sport and leisure facilities, including large hotels
d) cultural centres, such as museums, concert halls and art galleries
e) stadia and large auditoria
f) shopping centres and shopmobility centres
g) key buildings within town centres, e.g. town halls, civic centres and main public libraries
h) educational establishments
i) health facilities, such as hospitals, health centres and community practices.

Here you can find a copy of the standards set by the “Changing Places” consortium, for providing a truly accessible disabled toilet.

http://www.changing-places.org/install_a_toilet/design/changing_places_standards.aspx

I believe that instead of being used as a recommendation, it should be compulsory for “Changing Places” toilets to be installed in the public places mentioned above, and should be included in plans before planning permission can be granted. I also believe that the location of the nearest “Changing Places” toilet be advertised in standard disabled toilets as too often the disabled public are unaware of where the most appropriate facilities are, due to them not being widely advertised.

If you agree that it is unsafe, unreasonable and inhumane for anybody to be changed on a toilet room floor in this day and age then please join me in asking for Equality of Access to Disabled Toilets For All and take a moment to sign and share this petition, and help build a better and brighter future for my daughter and others like her