Aren't we lucky to be able to use disabled loos?

I have three able-bodied kids and they all use the disabled toilets whenever we are out.  Despite being eight and nearly six years old respectively, both my son's have autism and have to be monitored when using the toilet. It would be difficult for us to go out without disabled toilets.

Sometimes if there is just one male toilet, Anthony can use it but I can't really send him into the abyss that is the men's loos on his own.  He is petrified of hand dryers and can be scared or confused by things being different. I remember he wouldn't use the toilet somewhere because it had blue paint on the walls.  In a disabled toilet there is a bit more space. He can choose whether the hand dryer goes off and he doesn't need to touch things he doesn't want to. 

David, still needs help with direction and instruction. He'll forget what he's doing half way through maybe.  And as a child who doesn't speak, he can't be left on his own yet.  We can't both fit in a regular cubicle anymore so we need the space of  disabled toilet.

Jane is three years old, and I take her into the disabled loos to change her nappy.  

This makes us lucky.  But it shouldn't.  

It makes us lucky because it is possible to use the toilet.  Bizarrely there are nearly a quarter of a million disabled people who... can't use the disabled toilet. How strange is that?  

Perhaps it's too small to manoeuvre a wheelchair in it.  Perhaps it's too difficult to get the wheelchair through the door.  Or more often, it's because it doesn't have a changing bench and hoist to help those who need these facilities go to the toilet.

I have use a lot of disabled toilets.  At the supermarkets, service stations, trains, cafe's, museums, parks and more. I have only seen three toilets that have a hoist and bench.  I have seen just three that would mean friends of mine could do something as simple as use the toilet when they are out.  That's probably because there are less than 900 of these facilities, in the whole of the UK. Don't you think that's ridiculous?

Just because I don't need it, doesn't mean it's not needed.

Today I'm supporting people like Ordinary Hopes, Brody, Me and GDD, Mum on a Mission and A Wheelie Great Adventure.  Today I'd like you to consider supporting the Changing Places Campaign.  Search  and spread the word. Is it really too much to ask to be able to use the toilet?