Saturday, March 23, 2013

Handicapped Bathrooms

Still on my soapbox...Yesterday's post was a bit too long so I decided to finish up my other pet peeve of design for handicapped today. This one really gets my dander up!

Have you ever noticed the placement of toilet tissue in the restrooms today??? Never mind that the stalls are so small, you cannot turn around in some and to close the door you have to straddle the toilet! Or that there is never anywhere hang your purse. Or if, like me, you travel with a wallet and phone and there's no where to lay them and you have to do your business one handed... Yes all that alone is enough to make you pull your hair out but then... you can't get to the toilet paper!

 I'm sure it's cheapness on the part of most businesses but it's bad enough that a) the toilet paper will not roll and b) is so thin you have to stand there pulling more and more and more out to feel you have a piece thick enough to take care of things. And that's all while bending over and reaching backwards and UP! I don't know about you but my arm doesn't work that way!

If you are a man, maybe this isn't an issue for you. But put yourself in a woman's place, hang a 20 pound sack that costs primo bucks around your neck and for fun, wrap a 30 pound child around your waist. Now pull down your pants and "hover" for about a minute in a bent knee position over the porcelain throne. Realize you need some toilet paper and notice that it's placed below the handicapped rail, shift child to other hip while reaching down, back and up only to tear off a thin strip of paper that would take 19 more to do the job. Repeat 19 times! And don't forget, you're doing this in HEELS!

When did it become de rigueur to place toilet paper holders so low to the floor? Honestly, even a toddler able to use the restroom by themselves would have to reach down and up to get the contents out! What would be so wrong with placing it ABOVE the handicapped rail? Presumably those who require the handicapped rail are still SITTING. Why not have them reach UP? Placed just above the rail, it would still be accessible to the handicapped and children and be a completely natural thing to the human body!

To that end, I share with you the photo I took in January at my favorite pizza place in Louisiana, Mr. Gatti's:  

Finally, someone put some thought into where the toilet paper should be!

O.K., stepping of the soapbox!


2 comments:

Millie and Walter said...

I totally agree!!! Sometimes what I do is pull off the TP first (assuming I will only need one swipe) and then assume the position. LOL!

I think most often they try to squeeze in as many stalls as they can (within some sort of regulation) and the designer never tries them out after so they never realize they are impossible to move in.

I will be happy to stand on your soap box with you.

Cindy

Snowbrush said...

I'm a man, and i often find it a drag to reach the TP, but then I don't have to use it as much as women.