This is a fantastic development for special needs families like mine who live in Southampton and those that travel from afar to visit the retailer to stock up on quality homeware, soft furnishing and nifty gadgets.
It feels like a major step forward in our campaign to make bench and hoist standard provision in toilets in everyday places the general public visit.
A step towards understanding that children and adults with toileting needs don’t just go to day centres, community facilities, or public buildings.
That they want to visit everyday places that the rest of us take for granted will provide a toilet that meets our needs.
The Space to Change toilet is a refit of an existing disabled toilet to provide bench and hoist equipment.
It is already renowned for being one of the most family-friendly retailers globally with breastfeeding areas, baby and toddler food provision, nappy packs and childcare to name but a few.
But now the furniture giant has taken a major step towards meeting the needs of special needs families with the addition of a Space to Change toilet.
It’s not likely that we’ll be visiting the Southampton store anytime soon so I spoke briefly to a special needs mum and campaigner Sarah Brisidon who lives nearby. This is what she had to say,
‘This is fantastic news for special needs families and people with disabilities. So much of our lives are planned around toilets.
‘Toilets that include a bench and hoist to meet the toileting needs of my son Hadley who has cerebral palsy.
‘It’s great to know that we can now add this to our list of venues to visit. Who doesn’t love a plate of meatballs or ice-cream?
‘I’m sure we’ll be tempted to buy something even if we didn’t even know we needed it.
‘Well done.’