Changing Places toilets and how they are accessible

Positive Choices has been created to encourage people supported by Surrey Choices, to speak about the things that are important to them. Each meeting is themed which is selected by people we support. The meeting’s chosen topic is something that people are passionate about and can educate others on. and feature themes suggested by individuals. Slides and minutes are done in Easy Read format, so it is easy for people to access them.The latest meeting was around Changing Places toilets and how they are accessible.

Muscular Dystrophy UK is a charity that brings families, individuals and professionals together to fight against muscle-wasting conditions. Last month Karen, Changing Places manager, at Muscular Dystrophy UK, was invited to a Positive Choices meeting to talk about one of their campaigns that is relevant to Surrey Choices. 

They are campaigning for Changing Places toilets to become a mandatory requirement under building regulations for all large public places, like shopping centres, major leisure venues. hospitals, transport hubs, motorway services and airports.

Changing Places toilets are different from standard accessible toilets as they provide an adult-sized changing bench, hoist, more space and a peninsular toilet. Surrey Choices’ new Longmead community hub in Redhill has a Changing Places toilet the facilities really highlight the accessibility they provide as you can see from the video below.

Changing Places facilities improve the day to day lives for people with disabilities, as it means they can go out for a longer duration of time without worrying about not having the right facilities throughout the day. They are another step closer to giving people with disabilities the same opportunities as everyone else, to go out for the day and not worry about lack of facilities when they need them.

You can listen to Karen’s presentation she gave to colleagues and people we support by playing the audio clip below.