Alliance demands legal action after every building in survey fails standard
Disabled people face an obstacle course of locked doors, confusing signs, badly designed facilities and clutter when they try to use public toilets provided for them by law.
A survey of 95 toilets for the disabled in government and private buildings found that none fully complied with legal requirements and many were locked or in use as storerooms.
Four more buildings in the survey didn't even have one.
The Rehabilitation Alliance has called for legal action against offenders after surveying 99 buildings in 18 districts because of numerous complaints from its members. It will pass its findings to the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Buildings Department.
'None of the 95 toilets we checked were suitably designed according to the design manual and some suffered from management and hygiene problems,' alliance secretary-general Simon Wu Wing-kuen said.
'About 65 toilet seats were too high, 61 washing basins were inaccessible because they were too high, 39 toilets had no [alarm] call bells, 19 toilets were locked and 20 were being used as storage rooms.