Looathon; Pants Down for Equality!
Toilets are not glamorous. As a nation, we tend to look away when such things are brought to attention, or issues are raised. So how do you make people look, to bring attention back to the real problems surrounding accessible toilets? One way is with a Looathon; Pants Down for Equality!
Sarah Brisdion is a Changing Places campaigner. Her 7-year-old son Hadley has Cerebral Palsy and is wheelchair bound, which regularly means that standard accessible toilets are in fact inaccessible and fall far short of meeting his needs, along with so many other disabled people. Often the only alternatives are the undignified and unhygienic measures of being laid on a toilet floor or to use a nappy and sit in bodily wastes.
Sarah stated, “Without facilities, known as ‘Changing Places’ toilets (with an adult-sized changing bench and hoist) he has no choice… It’s heart-breaking for me as his mother and so distressing and dangerous for him.”
So Sarah is taking ‘public toilet’ to a whole new level. In order to raise awareness, on Friday 11 May between 10am and 4pm she will be sitting on the toilet in the Bathstore showroom window on Baker Street, London, in full view of the public with her trousers around her ankles.
Sarah won’t be alone of course; she will be joined in the window by special guests from around the country, including campaigners Laura Rutherford, Laura Moore and Actress and disability rights campaigner, Samantha Renke.
Samantha said: “Yes it will be humiliating. Yes we will have very little dignity. But this is just a fraction of what our kids go through. What so many go through. And we are desperate to keep this issue in the news. Keep it in people’s minds.”
Extreme measures? That may be, but #PantsDown4Equality hopes to raise awareness of the conditions that Sarah’s’ son and thousands of other disabled people face when using the toilet away from home. Holding a mirror up to the public of this human rights issue, the campaigners bravely baring all will be making a statement impossible to ignore.
Sarah added: “It’s shocking that in 2018, disabled people still have to endure this. We need to put a stop to this inhumane situation and encourage venues to upgrade their facilities and become more inclusive.”
If you want to find out more about the Changing Places campaign, click here.
Discover more on what these facilities can offer, here.
Do you have a space in mind at your business and are considering installing a Changing Places? Click here to speak to a Product Specialist.
