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What Does An Accessible Bathroom Look Like?

What Do Accessible Homes Look Like?

Do you ever wonder what an accessible home should look like? Well in this post series, I will be giving you an insight into what an accessible room could look like. Even with the recent government pledge for more accessible housing, we still have a way to go before disabled people can easily access housing that suits their disability needs.

Hopefully, this series will educate people on how accessible the world can be! Many rooms will be covered and plenty of resources will be shared to ensure you’re aware of what products and solutions are already available.

Accessible Houses in Public

Changing Places Toilets

To put accessible bathrooms into context, we need to look at something currently available in a public setting. Changing Places Toilets is an organisation campaigning for accessible changing place toilets to be accessible in the United Kingdom. Since starting, they have been able to campaign for accessible public toilets to be installed in hospitals, UK attractions, and shopping centres.

Mobile

Similar to Changing Places Toilets is Mobiloo, whose main focus is to bring accessible toilets to disabled people across the UK. This service lets people hire a van that contains all the accessible bathroom features a disabled person would need to use the toilet properly. Mobiloo attends a lot of events, including all popular festivals, including Slamdunk Festival, Wireless Festival, etc.

When I’ve been able to use the Mobiloo van, I have a much safer and cleaner toileting experience as normal portable loos at festivals aren’t always suitable for powerchair users due to how small they are. I hope to see Mobiloo attend more festival events in the future.

Mobiloo suggests that an accessible bathroom should ideally be the size of a car parking spot to be suitable at a minimum. This ensures that all the features, a disabled person needs to use the bathroom can be available, including:

  • Access to a bed to assist with personal care.
  • Access to a sink that a wheelchair can get under.
  • Handrails and emergency cords if help is needed i.e. due to a fall, etc.
  • Privacy screen to protect dignity.
  • Room for a tracking hoist on the ceiling (if needed).
  • Turning space for a powered wheelchair.

The Ideal Accessible Bathroom at Home

Enough Size and Space

Of course, not all these features will be essential for an accessible bathroom in a house. In a house, you would have a bed in a different room but as it is a public place, extra features will be needed. The point is that accessible bathrooms in homes need to be big enough for a wheelchair user to turn around. It may be useful to use the size of a parking space or larger as a baseline for an accessible bathroom.

Just Rolling In…

What may also be needed in an accessible bathroom is a roll-in shower. I’ve seen many “accessible” houses come pre-installed with a bath, which isn’t useful assuming that a standard portable hoist can’t always fit underneath it.

Roll-in shower wet rooms are an easy way to make a bathroom universally accessible for everyone. We all deserve to have a place to wash and keep ourselves clean, so why do disabled people have to go without due to inaccessible bathrooms?

We should look to make it so that roll-in showers are standard, with the option to add your shower seat or even a bath later on. Offering these flexible options will ensure those who want a roll-in shower can have one but ensure there are still options to put a bath in if they want to later if accessibility needs to change.

Safety Features

Ideally, the bathroom should be filled with handrails and assistive features to help us use the toilet safely. I would say to add an emergency cord into the mix but that’s more for public spaces and hotels. Although, there are plenty of products to alert people if you fall on the market, which the council can provide to you if needed.

The Essentials

Sinks are a very essential part of a bathroom as they help keep your hands clean. If these aren’t at the correct height, keeping your hands, face and teeth clean might become increasingly difficult. It is recommended that the sink is at least 770-800mm above the ground as kindly outlined on the Portsmouth.gov website development and planning guidelines for disabled housing.

Toilets are also important – these need to be at least 450mm off the ground and include a toilet seat that is sturdy enough to help easy transfers. I’m not an expert on toilets though but Moreability does cover this topic quite well over on their website!

Let’s Build More Accessible!

I hope you have learned a thing or two about how accessible bathrooms can be. The post has covered some of the accessible bathroom features both in public and home spaces. We must keep pushing for more accessible housing with accessible bathrooms. If you enjoyed today’s post, please make sure to drop your comments and thoughts to info@buildmyaccessiblehome.co.uk.

Please also consider donating to the blog via the BuyMeACoffee button at the bottom of this post. Donations, no matter how big or small highly appreciated and help me continue writing on this blog, plus go towards purchasing an accessible property!

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