My name is Tyra and I have two children. My daughter is 13 years old and severely disabled.
She requires full time care and a wheelchair. She is over 100 pounds. We are a very active family and many things limit us from being able to enjoy the beautiful places around us and some of these limitations can be removed especially when it comes to washroom accessibility. My daughter’s dignity is compromised when I have to change her diaper on a wet, filthy floor in a public washroom.
Adding a lift apparatus and larger changing table would ensure both my daughter’s safety and my safety when I am caring for her very basic needs. It is simply shameful to accept that our most vulnerable populations aren’t able to use a restroom that is safe and dignified.
As an active family, we have had to modify our travel because of the lack of accessible facilities.
We have literally resorted to changing our daughter on the floor in our van on the side of a highway while traffic passes by because no suitable options were present within the 400 km drive from our home to a large urban city.
We don’t travel as much anymore because it is just too difficult which means my son and daughter have to miss out on the things that most of us take for granted.
