Do you use the disabled toilet or the 'normal' toilets?

Post Reply New Topic

Regular ones. It is hard enough to find a restroom in an unfamiliar area to look for disabled one. And its not like I need the bars or extra room, in fact they disturb be - I stare at all the bars and try to figure out how a disabled person would use them. I think it would be pretty hard for someone on wheels to stand up and sit on the toilet, even with all the bars.

However I will use the disabled toilet if I can't find a regular one or the regular is too crowded. But I don't like it. Especially I hate the disabled room in a school where most of students are boys. I was looking for a woman restroom there once and couldn't find any (I found three boy restrooms but no girl ones!) so I decided to use a disabled one - just to find out the door lead straight to the hall and there is no lock!
So I just went to one of the men restrooms and used one of cabins there - at least they were lockable.

My husband has bad feet so he needs something to grab onto when he stands. At home he would use the counter top and then he was using the sink to stand up and upstairs he would use the cabinet thing. He will use the disabled stall because it has the rail and the toilet is higher off the ground. If anyone has a problem with it and dared to say it to his face, he should tell them "if it bothers you I am using the stall, go tell the store to put the rails in all the smaller stalls and raise the toilets higher off the ground so I can use the toilet easier without struggling to get off the toilet because my feet hurt so much from walking so it makes it harder for me to stand up when I sit."

I have seen very few places that would have one smaller stall with a rail in it.

I remember seeing on Yahoo Answers once by a disabled member if he goes to use the restroom and a parent was occupying the handicapped stall for the changing table, he will not fault the parent for it and blame the store and order them to move the changing table out of there.

Last edited by League_Girl on 19 Jul 2014, 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Depends.

If the regular toilet has "elbow room," I don't mind using it. If it's really narrow, I'll try and use the handicapped one.

If I can't avoid using a public toilet (I usually can, I do all I can to avoid them), I always use the normal ones of course. There is nothing wrong with my legs.

This is the same as what I do. I've never encountered a situation where the disabled toilet is in a separate room, it's always just a bigger stall with bars. Here, most people use them if they are the next available stall, and I've never got a weird look for using one.

Normal but sometimes I use a shower chair to bathe because I'm always tired.

I usually use the regular ones, unless I'm changing clothes and need the extra room.

I have talked to some wheelchair users who do get upset if someone uses the handicapped stall. However, they seem to get upset on principle, or else if someone uses it and takes forever and blocks them from getting to it.

Many disabled accommodations are actually pretty useful for non-disabled people, like me changing clothes in a handicapped stall or hitting an automatic door opener when I am carrying a box in both hands.

The thing with disabled accommodations is that non-disabled people can use them and benefit from them, but disabled people often have to use them, and have no other realistic options.

So, here is what I think: When a piece of equipment is adapted for disabled people, non-disabled people can use it too, but only if their using it does not stop disabled people from using it. So, if you use a disabled stall, go in and out quickly, so that if someone else needs it, they do not have to wait very long. Never use a disabled parking spot if you don't need it, because you are leaving your car there and blocking the spot for a long period of time. Use a door-opener anytime you like (barring the extreme rudeness of actually shouldering someone else out of the way so you can use it).

It's a bit of mental gymnastics to put yourself into the head of the other person, but it's not too difficult; it's just a first-order theory of mind and most of us can do that no problem by the time we're teens. Basically, you want to figure out whether you are inconveniencing someone else or not, by imagining that you are them and checking to see whether "you" would be able to use the facilities even if an able-bodied person were also using them.

i use disabled toilets as i am in a wheelchair and have cerebral palsy plus it is too busy in a normal toilet

I have done when there's no choice but to use the Disabled toilet. Some disabled toilets need special permissions to use and often stay locked, but when one is available and I'm having one of my more difficult days with autism, migraines and balance issues, the disabled toilets are easier to use than the usual loos during bad days, very handy rails, easy flush, cleaner and an emergency cord as well.

I carry a walking pole so maybe any dirty looks aren't so harsh...

Hey, autism counts as a disability, even if it's not a mobility disability. Occasionally, autistic people without movement disorders might need to use a disabled toilet.

Come to think of it, on a few occasions I have used them to get away from chaos and prevent a meltdown or shutdown in public. But if I can I really prefer not to use a bathroom for that purpose because they usually have harshly bright lights. Crawling behind a bush or under a stairwell is usually better, but not so socially acceptable.

I've used the disabled stall or whatever, because I like that there is more room in there...but if there was someone in a wheelchair for instance needing to use the restroom I wouldn't take that stall since they need it more than I do. I haven't really seen a lot of individual disabled public restrooms maybe just a couple times usually its just the regular public restrooms with the disabled stall and much of the time that doubles for a diaper changing station for moms with babies as well as it has the pull out thing for that.

Unisex(unless that is the only bathroom they have) and Family bathrooms also seem rather rare, except a couple malls I've been to have seperate family bathrooms....I used it before because its nicer than the regular bathrooms and no one else was using it.

People have been known doing it in unusual places. People pee in this shelter at the train stop right by our house because it always smells like urine. Plus I have seen some videos on youtube that were cameras taken in a store catching someone doing it.

Honestly, with stalls in public bathrooms, unless it is totally enclosed by wooden doors (which I see rarely), I think it promotes "peeping Toms"

Me either. I don't normally use the handicapped toilet because the seat is too high. But as far as I know there are no laws that state you can't use the handicapped toilets unless you are handicapped. At my job the ladies' room has only two toilets -- a regular one, and handicapped. I am NOT going to stand in line for a toilet because someone is in the regular one. I don't get the problem with the other people -- I've never YET been in a situation where someone needed a handicapped stall in an emergency.

When I take a piss. I use a normal stall, but then I have to take a crap. I use the disable one because I have serious claustrophobia issues when I try to sit down in such a confined space.

I have been in a situation when my son needed a new diaper when he was a baby and someone was in the handicapped stall where the changing station is. She sure took a long time in there and it annoyed me but I should have just changed him on the floor. I had a changing mat. I ended up not changing him until after we were through grocery shopping. By then the stall was empty. I think it was occupied by an elderly. But that has been the only situation ever I have been in where it seemed like they never left the stall and it looked like the person was standing because I looked under and I saw the person through the cracks and it looked like an old lady. That part just annoyed me because she wasn't on the toilet so what was she doing?