Disabled Toilets Regulations

The ADA Accessibility Guidelines (1) sets forth various disabled toilets regulations that all public places in the United States need to abide by. A disabled toilet must be installed in all public facilities with other regular toilets and their architectural design must comply with the ADA disabled toilets regulations. Some of these disabled toilets regulations are:

• Access: Disabled toilets access is a very important issue. All public facilities must have at least one disabled toilet located on the first floor that meets all ADA disabled toilets regulations. Other toilets for disabled people must be accessible my elevators.

• Size: Disabled toilets must be big enough so that a wheelchair can be maneuvered in it without difficulty. There must also be ample space to move around in the wheelchair within the facility.

• Heights of Fixtures: Toilet bowl in a disabled toilet must be located at an appropriate height for easy transfer from wheelchairs. Wash basins should be at an accessible height for individuals in wheelchairs to reach.

• Cleanliness: Extra effort must be made to ensure cleanliness of disabled public toilets. Wheelchair-ridden individuals often have to touch fixtures, walls and doors; therefore it is very important that these areas are always clean and dry for the sake of hygiene.

• Availability: Toilets for disabled people must not be available for the regular public. Disabled toilets are limited in number, often times only one or two in a facility. It is important that these be available to individuals who require it as they might have trouble controlling their bowels or have other immediate requirements for a disabled toilet.

Importance of Disabled Public Toilets

It is hardly arguable that disabled public toilets are a huge necessity in today’s world. In order to offer equality to all individuals, it is unfair to discriminate against disabled individuals by not providing disabled toilets access in every public facility. The ADA disabled toilets regulations sets forth strict size, cleanliness and accessibility guidelines for all disabled public toilets to follow. By following such rules, a business enterprise embraces the disabled community and provides them with equal opportunity in one of the most required areas of life. Due to the presence of these disabled toilets, it is now becoming increasingly easier for disabled individuals to travel freely without accessibility worries. It encourages them to move forward in life and not worry about these minor obstructions. Disabled toilets have indeed been a huge step forward in helping out the disabled community with their needs.

Toilets for disabled individuals are required to be set up in every public facility. However, a lot of places do not provide proper disabled toilets access to such individuals. It is important to remember that there are heavy fines in places for not complying with ADA disabled toilets regulations. If all the guidelines set forth by them for installing a proper disabled toilet are not followed by them, then a business might find itself in huge lawsuits that could result in it closing down eventually. The importance of these disabled toilets can be best understood by disabled people themselves as they know how hard it can be for them otherwise.

Reference:

1. ADA Accessibility Guidelines – United States Access Board
   

There is a law in place however that governs your rights to access; the disability discrimination act states that places have to make reasonable changes to make access better for disabled people.

What does making reasonable changes mean?
This means that people providing services such as restaurants, shops and library’s now have to:

* Change any procedure, policy or practise that makes it difficult for disabled people to access their services, for example a no dog policy must be changed for those who are blind and have guide dogs or lowering pavements to allow easy wheelchair access.

* Provide aids or services to improve the disabled person’s use of a service, for example providing a sign language interpreter for public meetings where deaf people may be present.

* Changing physical features such as widening doorways that may prevent a person using a wheelchair from gaining access to a building.

Buying and renting property

There are laws in place to help disabled people renting and buying property, it is against the law for a landlord to treat a disabled person differently than any able bodied person. There is a buildings regulation act in place to ensure health and safety in all types of buildings.

If you are renting property and you become disabled then your landlord has to make provisions for your disability, this may include installing ramps for easier accessibility to the home and providing handrails alongside paths to the home.

Discrimination when buying or renting property

It is against the law to discriminate against you if you are disabled and you want to buy or let property. This means that a landlord cannot refuse to let you a property just because of your disability without a very good reason. An example of this would be if you were a HIV positive business person and you wanted to rent office space but the landlord refused you because of this.

It is against the law for someone managing property to discriminate against you by obstructing or restricting in anyway the use of facilities on the premises.

This means things like car parks or communal gardens; it is the landlord’s place to make sure you can gain access to these things by making reasonable adjustments. The only time that this is waived is when the landlord lives on the property him or herself.