I need help RE:Handicapped bathrooms (not a copycat)

[underpants]

Will Bowden asked about parking spots here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4171079&mesg_id=4171518

Okay so you go into a bathroom. There is a handicapped stall. Let's say someone else is in the only other stall (really you should leave but that is another thread) do you use the handicapped stall? Would it depend on the amount of time you think you will be in there (weighed against the likelihood of someone needing the stall)?

Well?

[Texasgal]

1. Good question

I would go in the handicap stall. Using the b-room dosen't take as long as someone trying to get into a store or resturant.

[Left Is Write]

2. Yes, I would use the available stall.

There is no reason to leave a perfectly good stall empty while you wait for someone in another stall.

If there is a line and a person who is handicapped comes in, common courtesy dictates that you let him/her use the handicapped stall before anyone else, but an otherwise empty bathroom? Why wouldn't you use the available stall?

[MissB]

3. Unless it has a sign on it marking it reserved exclusively

then it is just another stall. Like another poster said - if there is a line and a disabled person comes in, then that person gets the stall.

I view them as available for use, not reserved for use.

[DS1]

4. dump and dash

respectfully, of course

[underpants]

6. The "Tall boy"

all the office helmets at my wife's old joke referred to the handicap toilet as such. It was revered.

Gotta run-Porcelain:how the Romans irrigated the Third Reich is going to be on the History Channel at 6.

[DS1]

7. From the Aqueduct to the Autobahn: How Ancient Rome's lifeline

turned into the Holocaust Superhighway

[underpants]

8. I leave DU as I entered today

laughing.

wow a perfect circle.

Crop Circles: How the aliens learned from Hitler.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Use it if you must, but yield.

It's best to wait for a standard stall and leave the accessible one available but when nature calls that's not always a practical solution.
By using the available stall you are accepting responsibility for a quick exit if someone arrives who needs the amenities. Some disabled have poor control of these functions and can't wait as long as the rest of us.

This was the guidance I received from a nationally recognized disability access expert.

[trof]

9. I do it all the time.

It's an aid to the handicapped, not for exclusive use.

[Beaverhausen]

10. I prefer the handicapped stall...room to "spread out"

wait...that didn't come out right.

oh god...I did it again.

I better stop now.

[China_cat]

11. Using a chair as I do on occasion

I can tell you that the majority of so-called 'handicap' stalls do not have enough room in them to get into with a chair. Or if you can get in, you can't shut the door. If you can shut the door, you then can't get the chair turned around to get back out. You'd do better carrying a transfer board and sliding over into a regular stall.

So please, go ahead and use it if you have to. I'd really rather you do that than take a chance of wetting yourself. More than likely I'm going to be able to wait better than you can because I'm not on my feet and gravity doesn't hit as hard on the bladder when you're sitting down.

[ChoralScholar]

12. Reminds me of a George Carlin bit

"Recently, in a public bathroom, I used the handicapped stall. As I emerged, a man in a wheelchair asked me indignantly, "Are you handicapped?" Gathering all my aplomb, I looked him in the eye and said, "Not now. But I was before I went in there.""

[KamaAina]

13. You do use the available stall.

This issue came up at a disabilities conference a couple of years ago. There is no reason the person with a disability should not wait just like everyone else if the bathroom is full. The person who explained this to me uses a wheelchair herself.

What you do NOT do is use the accessible stall if another is available. There actually are people (?) who do this, just because the accessible stall is bigger, better-appointed, what have you. :grr: