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| Photo description: A white infant's onesie with the words 'We All Pee!' written in red. |
I think we can all agree on two simple facts:
1) Everyone needs to pee.
2) Everyone needs to poo.
OK, let's be really clear about those two facts. Everyone means everyone. People with disabilities poo. People with disabilities pee. Everyone needs to pee and everyone needs to poo.
I'm driving those facts home.
I think we can move on now.
Disabled stalls in the men's room, or the separate family / disabled bathrooms are designated primarily for people with disabilities or people who have other real and legitimate needs for the extra space.
Are you still following me?
Now, Men Who Pee, when you have a choice of stalls, please choose the stall that suits your needs, if you don't really, truly need the extra space, please leave the disabled access stall free for those who do. WAIT! I know what you're thinking, "I've never seen a disabled person use this stall." This is an interesting fact and you may want to think about why disabled people aren't frequenting the same places that you are. I've seen disabled stalls in restaurants with stairs - you might thing about accessibility rather than an excuse to use the stalls. Secondly, not all people with disabilities find stairs a barrier. Some need the extra space even though they don't look disabled. Yep. Some of us can pass. They lurk among you gathering data on the mysterious world of the non-disabled. What they've found is troubling, but that's another post for another time. So. Don't use it if you don't have to.
Why am I writing this to men when this part about using the stalls applies to women too? You'll see in a minute.
OK, here's the point of the whole blog.
Remember, you're in a stall, usually the only one, that disabled people, in the case of disabled access washrooms, or disabled men in the case of a disabled stall in a men's room, are able to use.
So follow this simple rule:
Don't piss on the toilet seat.
The seat lifts! It's this magical design that allows you to lift before pissing all over the freaking seat.
A disabled person, or guy, has to come in and, first wipe the pee off the seat if they need to sit, or before they lift the seat, because we do that, so it doesn't pool on the floor and get our clothes wet.
We don't want to sit in your pee.
We don't want to wear your pee.
So let's go over that rule again.
DON'T PISS ON THE TOILET SEAT.
Thank you for your time in reading this.
Your fellow (disabled) guy!
Pithy post - put the pee IN the potty!
ReplyDeleteDuly noted. I will pass this on to my 8-year-old son who still struggles with the concept of a lifting seat. His sister's repeated blow ups at him have not yet driven the idea home.
ReplyDeleteSince we are on the subject, would it also be possible to actually aim into the center of the device, and not dribble down the outside?
ReplyDeleteSigned,
One tired of cleaning the FRONT of the device.
I was at a large festival last summer. The line in the women's washroom was out the door! There was one stall that was for handicapped. I didn't want to use this one in case a handicapped person needed it, but everyone in line re-assured me that if someone came in and needed that stall, that person would be next.
ReplyDeleteI will say this, as a woman who at this point who is certainly disabled but not in a way that affects her usage of bathrooms:
ReplyDeleteIf (assming a line) there is nobody in line who clearly needs to use an accessible stall, go for it if you only need a quick pee. If you might be longer, I think it's safer to wait for another stall to open up (barring absolute emergency), especially if you've seen anybody out and about who might need said accessible stall. There is no point in leaving an available toilet unused if you will use it and be on your way, as long as you aren't deliberately blocking somebody who needs that particular one.
That being said, regardless of gender, please either don't pee on the seat, or at least clean up if you do! Sadly it's not only men who can leave...well, evidence of their presence. Especially if they are squeamish about public toilets and hover, therefore creating the very problem they are trying to avoid.
In the women's room where there are other stalls, my eyes shoot darts when someone decides to make the one accessible stall their personal dressing room. And women taking multiple kids in with them right ahead of my wheelchair. (Three kids, only one young enough to need help on account of age. All four of them needing the toilet.) But the worst was when a woman drags her 9-ish daughter into said stall, squeezing by me and my equipment on our way in. Neither of them needed the toilet, oh no, she'd went in there to fuss at the girl. The other people in the room were shocked at her actions, and we quietly agreed that whatever the girl had done probably wasn't nearly as bad as what the woman was doing. When she was finally through, she got embarrassed as she opened the door ...probably not at what she'd done but at the stunned/disapproving audience she found she had. (Open air at the top and bottom with hollow thin metal door/walls otherwise. She was expecting privacy?) Her only comment (to me) before dragging her daughter (who was loving this) out was, "Oh, I didn't know you needed this." The woman had literally brushed ahead of me on the way in, her thighs to my rims, so she knew I was there. But I guess people with disabilities couldn't possibly enter a public restroom, needing a toilet. No, those are her magically soundproof berate my child areas that for some reason have water-filled porcelain. There's rude and then there's bizarrely rude.
ReplyDelete