Radio Merseyside
(The following has been transcribed with the kind permission of Radio Merseyside)
Broadcaster - Now, getting caught short and finding the toilet locked can be a nightmare for all of us, but doubly so if you’re in a wheelchair. Toilets for disabled people are frequently locked to try to cut misuse and vandalism, but finding the key holder can prove almost impossible. Through a scheme launched by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation more than 7000 toilets nationwide have been made accessible through a National Key Scheme, and there are 18 here in Liverpool city centre. Well details of where the toilets can now be found are online at www.directenquiries.com, the Nationwide Access Register, and its chief executive, Grant Kennedy joins us. Good morning.
Grant Kennedy - Good morning, how are you?
Broadcaster - I’m very well thank you. Tell us about how this National Key Scheme works.
Grant Kennedy – It’s very simply, it’s been around now for about 7 years but really has taken storm over the last few. There are 7,200 toilets across the country and the idea is that people can acquire the keys via RADAR so that wherever they go, the toilets all use exactly the same key, which they know they’ve got, but more importantly they know that that the toilet is generally kept clean and tidy. And more importantly it is meant just for disabled people.
Broadcaster - Now you have been working with local authorities to bring disabled toilets into the scheme, and have you had support from our local councils here on Merseyside and in Cheshire?
Grant Kennedy - Well RADAR themselves communicate with the councils and so forth and the majority of the toilets that are currently in the Liverpool area are all privately owned. They are in some of the pubs and restaurants around the city. But I don’t believe at the moment that there are many council owned RADAR toilets.
Broadcaster – Before the details were available on your website, I’ll give the address out again for that in a minute, how could disabled people find out where the nearest toilet schemes were?
Grant Kennedy - There was a booklet that people could get from RADAR. My father himself is a wheelchair user, but the booklet, unfortunately because there as so many toilets as you can imagine, was a bit thick and a bit cumbersome to carry around. This idea is that people can have look before they go somewhere. So even if my father is going away on holiday, he can have a quick look at the city or town that he is going to, find out where the toilets are and just print off a simple list and take it with him.
Broadcaster - But this is a problem anyway for people that the toilets that they want to use, they can’t use. There is one in Liverpool City centre, I know that it is privately owned, but as far as I am aware has never been accessible, its never been open and no-one has ever seen anyone going in or coming out of it. I mean it’s so frustrating to be on a shopping trip and not be able to use the loo when everyone else can, just because you are in a wheelchair.
Grant Kennedy – Absolutely, and I think that as you said before, it is frustrating for everybody, not just people in wheelchairs and disabled people. There are 10 million disabled adults in the country, not just wheelchair users. At the end of the day we have got to get to the point where, if there is an accessible toilet that doesn’t have a lock on it, you try not to use that because you do have other options, where disabled people and certainly wheelchair user’s options are limited.
Broadcaster - So you think that this scheme is going to make a big difference?
Grant Kennedy – I certainly hope so, if nothing else then it certainly gives people the opportunity to know that if they have one of the keys that there is a network of toilets around the country that generally are kept clean and tidy, and hopefully as much as possible are reserved for disabled people.
Broadcaster - So just give us the website address again.
Grant Kennedy - www.directenquiries.com
Broadcaster - Okay well thanks very much for joining us on the programme this morning. That’s Grant Kennedy who is the Chief Executive of www.directenquiries.com which is a website where if you are a wheelchair user you can log on and find out where the most accessible disabled toilets are, and there are 18 in Liverpool City centre, I don’t know the figures for the rest of our area, but if you log onto that website you can find out…