To pee or not to pee?

So today is a new low!!!

I’ve been visiting a building for 6 years now, and last week I arrived to find the accessible parking bays taken up by badge-less cars and the accessible toilets locked. It could be that the disabled people using the bays had forgotten their badges,  if so my anger is mis-placed, my apology. However, having nearly wet myself trying to get to the loo, my anguish has been replaced by anger - it is fuming, white-hot, sheer venomous rage. As I've had to put things I felt were more important on hold.  Despite this I wrote a simple email to the building’s management. It went like this: 

I am pretty sure that it was never your wish to embarrass or shame me. however, your application of policy with regard to access has caused both pain and humiliation.  I’ve been a disability equality specialist for 20 years, and I’m getting fed up with stupid policies that in no way support disabled people’s access to typical not preferential treatment.

I arrived to chair a board meeting and AGM last Friday. Firstly, I could not park in the accessible bays, marked with the wheelchair symbol. Because these were taken up by drivers who had no blue badge.  Luckily I found a space 200 yards down the road, sadly, because walking causes me pain, the extra walk was excruciating. So imagine how frustrated I felt when I finally got to the office AND COULD NOT PEE!!! I’m still deeply ashamed that I nearly wet myself, trying to get into the ladies. I’m not sure about parking, but surely having a pee is a human right!!!! 

I am sure that you are policy compliant. Your practice, however, does not deliver on the reasonable adjustments a disabled person might need to receive a typical experience. PLEASE, adjust your practice, or explain to our board why you refuse to treat me with dignity.

                                                    [names omitted to protect the guilty]

I really am so sick of these petty fights, we have bigger problems surely???? I was further enraged by the explanation that the accessible loos had been locked because other tenants had blocked them with ‘excrement’. Really! Really?? So I am to be penalised because of other people’s ***y ignorance. This is bollocks!?!!  It is doubly unacceptable, because the behaviour that is offensive is the complete disregard of the rights of us all to pee... it's unjust, in particular to those who need quick and barrier-free access to relief.

I have been a campaigner, disability equality consultant and human rights activist for too many years. But I feel the climat has become incredibly toxic recently. As a pragmatist I do not expect the systemic and societal behemoths to move fast in making the world less excruciating for those suffering. Is a little kindness too much to ask for? I despair! If we cannot rely on free access, how are we going to solve matters of deeply entrenched inequality, such as employment, education, housing, leisure and law??? 

I found this very useful food for thought:
https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1401527
highlights:

• Disabled people in the United Kingdom face many problems. These include abusive or negligent treatment in services which are meant to support them.
  
• Policy-makers often know that these things are wrong. They do not know
  how to change the way people do things, so that policies are followed.
  
• This article looks at a way of understanding what is going wrong, by thinking about theories of social practice. These ideas help us to see the bigger picture, not just the ‘bad practice’ of individuals.
  
• We give some examples of how social practice theories can help us understand the way a person might get support to go shopping, and also the experiences of disabled students in universities.