The bathroom environment for disabled persons

Accessibility is the characteristic of the environment which guarantees the user – with the user’s particular needs (disabled, elderly, children..) – the possibility to use the space, its component parts and its fittings with autonomy and safety.
Accessible design is not to be considered just in special circumstances: to make a room or a service available for persons with physical or sensory disabilities means to satisfy the needs of everyone, including the non-disabled.

When it comes to the use of a bathroom, every one of us wants to be as independent as possible, and to have privacy. This leads to a situation in which the help of others is accepted with extreme difficulty, even if it is offered discretely. Often, due to the presence of water and the various movements which must be carried out between one sanitary fitting and another, the bathroom may create obstacles to independence for physically disabled persons.

The design of an accessible bathroom must be carried out with the goal of maximum safety and autonomy of use, pursuing compatibility between necessities and physical capabilities, as well as ‘special needs’ of the users and the characteristics of the space and the fittings.
In the case of a private bathroom, the designer must interact and collaborate with the end user of the space, to find out particular needs; in the case of bathroom facilities which are open to the public, the requirements of mobility, usability and safety of the user must be met without knowing in advance the particular needs of the user, who can have a range of different characteristics and disabilities.