Public restrooms and disability access: why these designs and for which bodies?

-first year student, Shivani Williams, on the design of bathrooms in her residential suite


Pictures 1 and 2: Semi-suite bathroom (disability accessible)

As a resident of Longstreet-means, I have noticed some very interesting aspects of architecture regarding the way that the bathrooms were designed. The first two pictures above were taken in the bathroom in my suite. Because one of my suitemates was in crutches, we were all moved into a disability accessible room. That is why our bathroom is slightly larger than our neighbor’s bathrooms (pictures 1 and 2 are of our bathroom). Pictures 3 and 4 are photos of the hall bathroom on our floor. Unlike the girls, the boys do not have bathrooms in their rooms, but girls are allowed to use the hall bathrooms, too. I found it very interesting that even though our bathroom is supposed to be disability accessible, there is no tub—-just a shower. In the hall bathroom, however, there is a tub with a shower. This seems strange to me, because if a boy had a broken foot, then it wouldn’t be an inconvenience to him to have to use this bathroom, considering he has to use the hall bathroom anyway. However, if a girl had a broken foot, rather than using her own bathroom, she would need to go all the way down to the hall bathroom just to use the tub. Why weren’t the girls' disability- accessible bathrooms built with tubs?

Pictures 3 and 4: hall bathroom (also disability accessible)


The pictures above depict the relationship between bodies and space, and how certain types of spaces can determine who use them. At first glance, photos 1 and 2 appear to promote ease for a person with a disability because the bathroom is quite spacious and has handle bars near the toilet seat. However, when the shower lacks a tub, as seen in picture #2, students with disabilities cannot shower. Though it is feasible for some people on crutches to use this shower, the design does not take into account people in wheelchairs or even people on crutches who do not have the upper body strength to hold themselves up in the shower without some kind of support system. Thus, the lack of a tub where the shower is refutes the notion that all people can use it. As a result, those in wheelchairs and/or on crutches are forced to use the public, hall bathroom where there is a tub integrated into the shower.
Furthermore, not only does the so-called accessible bathroom exclude disabled people in wheelchairs and on crutches, but it specifically excludes female students with disabilities because the bathrooms for female students are integrated into the rooms. If a female student with an impairment is unable to use her own bathroom because of its lack of a tub, she would be forced to take a shower in the hall bathroom, which is unfair because this is a space that she must share with male residents. The female disabled student in this scenario has neither a private space where she can take a shower nor a public space where she can take a shower without the possibility of having to wait for male residents to finish using it. In conclusion, she is being forced into public space, not by her own choice, but because she is female and has a disability, and there is no such personal space for her-- even in her own bathroom.