Featured

Change toilet provision to increase custom

Venues, retail outlets could significantly increase the number of families visiting, and their length of stay, just by adapting accessible toilet facilities.

A survey by Firefly Community- a group of 20,000 families with children who have special needs- found that:

  • 97% of families surveyed said changing their child whilst out and about was a  problem.
  • 86% had to leave a venue early because of poor toilet facilities
  • 100% suffer from back pain (from lifting their child)
  • 95% said either a height adjustable or adult-sized changing bench would make their life easier on days out
  • 99% would be more likely to visit a venue if it improved its toilet changing facilities.

“The survey speaks for itself,” observes Claire Smyth, who runs Firefly’s Space to Change campaign, for wheelchair-accessible toilet facilities with a changing bench and hoist. “Provide a hoist, bench, and you open your doors to up to 14 million disabled children and adults in the UK, and their families, who need space, a bench, and/or hoist to toilet away from home.

“Without these, those families either can’t visit, or leave early so spend less with you: that includes everything from doing the weekly shop, a trip to the town or shopping centre, a family meal out, or a tourist attraction. And we know that venues that have made that change are seeing tangible benefits- Cornwall Services, for example, has reported its facility is used daily and it has seen an increase in custom and spend as a result.”

Adds Robin Tuffley, marketing manager at Clos-o-Mat, supporter of the Space to Change campaign, “Even if there is no other toilet provided, venues have to at least have a unisex wheelchair-accessible toilet. Many unisex wheelchair accessible toilets are already big enough to accommodate the bench and hoist: it’s a comparatively small capital equipment spend to add them. Even if they are not already big enough, it only requires an additional 1.6m x 2m of space….”

Under the Equality Act, venues to which the public have access are required to anticipate the need and make ‘reasonable adjustments’, including to the built environment, if a disabled person would otherwise be at a ‘substantial’ disadvantage. Campaigners maintain having to lie a child or adult on a toilet floor to be changed because there are not suitable facilities represents that substantial disadvantage.

The concept of Space To Change toilets has been developed to ensure that the personal hygiene needs of people who need changing and lifting facilities for their personal care are met when away from home, as much as possible. It builds on a Regulatory (Document M) unisex wheelchair-accessible toilet, delivering a 7.5m2+ (3m x 2.5m min) WC facility with an adult-sized changing bench and a hoist.

Clos-o-Mat, Britain’s leading supplier of disabled toilet solutions at home and away, has been instrumental in developing the Space To Change toilet layout, and working with campaigners and Firefly Community to promote the concept. Firefly Community, an online special needs resource, is driving the movement, supporting campaigners and raising awareness of the need for accessible toilets that include a height adjustable changing bench and hoist.

Full details of the Space To Change concept, plus technical support, CAD blocks etc, can be found at www.clos-o-mat.com and http://community.fireflyfriends.com/campaigns/space-to-change .

 

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button