Let’s Get Real About Public Restrooms
It’s time to get real and talk about public restrooms and people with disabilities. I created the video below to bring awareness and to talk about the problems my son faces in public restrooms.
It’s a huge yet largely invisible problem. The fact that older children and adults do not have diaper-changing spaces in public places is so wrong. What if the rest of us had to lie on a dirty, public floor in order to take care of one of our most basic human needs? It’s just wrong.
In the video I start by talking about how public restrooms are scary to my autistic son. Everything in the restroom is loud and scares him. I touch on the sensory overload of public restrooms and then I talk about the much bigger issue…
It is 2018 and I have to change my son on the floor of a public restroom. It breaks my heart every single time. No mother should ever have to do that. And no human should ever have to lie on the floor.
Situations like this are all too common for parents and caregivers of those with special needs. For any number of reasons, those with disabilities at any age may need to wear diapers. But what happens when these individuals need to be changed in public? What happens when these individuals are too big for traditional baby changing tables?
We have to turn to the floor. It’s awful.
Thankfully our son can walk and stand but it is still difficult when there are not adult changing tables. And what about people in wheelchairs? How do their caregivers change them?
It’s an extremely isolating feeling. And we feel like we can’t go out in public. Our loved ones need a safe, private and accommodating area to be changed when out in public.
Changes need to be made and I’m going to keep talking and keep sharing until that happens.
It is not ok that I have to change my son on a public bathroom floor…. I know we can do better!
We NEED change!
https://www.facebook.com/LoveHopeandAutism/videos/1961784077230402/
This video was share with Finding Cooper’s Voice by Love Hope & Autism.
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