You’re out to dinner with your family for a birthday celebration when your 10-year-old son says he needs to use the restroom. For most, this wouldn’t be an issue—but your son has muscular dystrophy and “using the restroom” means you need to change his diaper. You peek in the nearby bathroom and confirm your assumption: it’s stalls, not family-style, and there’s no adult changing table, so you would have to change your son on the floor, essentially in public. You stick around until you can get the check, and head home early. 

This is your normal. While family outings are possible for many others on a daily basis, the lack of accessible facilities at malls, restaurants, concert halls, and other public spaces often keeps your family at home or cuts your plans short. Even if there is a private, wheelchair-accessible restroom where you’re headed, it’s unlikely that it has an adult changing table (a height-adjustable changing table for older children and adults), forcing you to change your son in unsanitary conditions. Sometimes you resort to changing him in the trunk of your car, but the weather and passersby can make that equally unpleasant.

The solution should be simple: make adult changing tables more accessible in public spaces. Some states have approved legislation requiring them in certain venues, but in others, the issue hasn’t been approached. The good news is that people are starting to talk about it, inspiring caregivers like you to take action. 

Our most recent blog goes over how you can take action and organizations to support that are fighting to get adult changing tables in public restrooms.