Get your act together…

A couple of years ago at the start of the pandemic I changed the name of my blog, but last week I felt I needed to revive the ‘Accessible Bog Blog’ . When we went to the Commonwealth Games we stopped off at McDonald’s in Handsworth, Birmingham for a quick bite to eat before the evening session. We don’t often go to McDonald’s but we were on a tight time schedule and it had taken three hours to get up to Birmingham and we had a time slot to be at the car park for the park and ride. Anyway the long and the short of it was that the accessible toilets were a real let down. Since having a stoma and a supra pubic catheter and being in an electric wheelchair means I no longer have to transfer onto the toilet. What I do need is to get near the toilet so I can empty my catheter and my stoma bag. Neither of which I could do in this toilet. Hubby had to get my empty bottle from my rucksack and also my small emergency jug that SMD got me when I was fitted with the stoma for such events such as these.

In all my years of using accessible toilets I have never come across anything like this. It’s not only a bad experience for wheelchair users who don’t transfer but also for those that do and anyone with a disability who is still able to walk. I will try and show you what I mean by explaining with pictures.

This door into the accessible toilet is immediately as one comes through the restaurant and on the left hand side, the turning circle was ridiculous and opens outwards. I was lucky and had my hubby with me so he was able to open the door for me and hold it back with his bum, but then we struggled to drive forward and get through the door, first we had to move a nappy bin from where it was to just behind me.

 

It happens in so many accessible loos that I shouldn’t feel surprised to see the call cord wrapped around the hand rail but honestly what is somebody supposed to do if they fall on the floor. Not everyone is in an electric wheelchair and are able to walk or they transfer from their manual wheelchair onto the toilet (which is where most of the falls are likely to happen)?

Once in the toilet hubby had to lean over me to try and lock the door. It was at this point we realised we would need to go and get the empty water bottle I carry in my rucksack to empty my catheter as there was not enough room to empty it directly down the toilet. 

The trouble was there wasn’t really room for hubby to get behind my wheelchair to get my rucksack (he’s not a big man) once we managed to remove the rucksack we could get the bottle out. Now to tackle emptying the stoma bag, as previously mentioned we also carry the travel jug that SMD had given us we could then empty it down the loo. Unbelievably we went to rinse it out in the sink but that was so small that it wouldn’t fit under the tap very easily.

We were knackered, even hubby washing his hands with my wheelchair taking up so much room was a challenge. Below is a picture we took from outside with the door wide open, it doesn’t really show how cramped it was but believe me it was. 

What an unpleasant experience, I have even tweeted McDonald’s, sent them the photos and expressed my displeasure. Being fair they answered immediately and are carrying out an investigation. To be honest I think there is very little they can do as the square footage of the toilet is so small, but they could reduce the size of their nappy bin and not tie up the emergency pull cord.

Not surprisingly they have now investigated and have apologised profusely, I sent them all the photographs and although they cannot make the space any bigger they will get the Manager of the restaurant to adjust the call cord and look at the size of the nappy bin.

Do you have any experiences good or bad of an accessible toilet? The most important thing is the evening session at the aquatic’s centre was fantastic. x