Stopping

It should be taken for granted that where there are considerable and frequent crowds of people toilets should be available. Often, however, they are not.
Toilets located in parks must also meet the requirements of differently-abled people, and must therefore have the same characteristics as those in public premises. They must not be used as storerooms and cluttered up with deposits of materials. The sizes that the law imposes for toilets accessible to differently-abled people take account of the spaces needed for those in wheelchairs who need to manoeuvre.

Differently-abled people also have gender. It would be a great civil gesture to eliminate toilets reserved for differently-abled people, which have never been distinguished into men or women as if the differently-abled person belonged to a third undefined gender, and make the common toilets for men and women in all municipalities usable by all. Furthermore, the picture of the man on a wheelchair on the third door of toilets highlights and underlines a discriminatory approach towards different abilities.

It could be useful, within the toilets, to identify an area equipped for the hygiene of small children (like nappy changing). Warning: putting a changing unit in women’s toilets only, means not considering that now many men have learnt how to take care of their children. Moreover, it would be very interesting if the main facilities located in the nappy changing area were at variable height and with an adequate empty space under the rest level, so that a parent in a wheelchair is also able to change their child.

If there are no toilets in the park suitable for differently-abled people, at least the closest one should be signposted, describing the shortest route (without architectonic barriers) to reach it, clarifying, if it is in a public building, the hours of opening and the days of closure for the week.