TIME FOR CHANGE
DISABLED CAMPAIGN TO END INDIGNITY
PEOPLE with severe disabilities are being forced to lie on dirty floors and curl up in the back of cars to get changed because there are no proper toilets for them.
Campaigners say there is a serious lack of Changing Places toilets in Scotland. Such facilities need to be bigger than usual disabled toilets so they can accommodate those who need other people to help them when they go to the loo.
By law, companies have to provide disabled toilets but not Changing Places.
Most public buildings – including some hospitals – don’t have them.
Laura Rutherford, whose six-year-old son Brody McAteer has severe disabilities and wears nappies, says going out can be a nightmare.
And sometimes, there is no alternative but to change him in the boot of the family car or on a disabled toilet floor.
Laura said: “I find it really upsetting changing my son on a dirty toilet floor. I lie him on my coat but it is not pleasant when I have to put it back on with who knows what on it.
“If we are at soft play and we need to change Brody, we have to do it on the toilet floor.
“Recently, we had to try to balance him on a baby changing table which he was too big for. We need Changing Places toilets in order to change him safely and with dignity. After all, going to the toilet is a basic human right.”
Laura, 34, of Bonnybridge, near Falkirk, added: “We tend to travel further to somewhere with a Changing Places toilet rather than somewhere local which has none.
“There are no shopping centres locally that have them so we go to Silverburn or Braehead near Glasgow.”
There are only 178 Changing Places toilets in Scotland.
Lack of toilets means misery for little Brody