Perth mum Renae Telo calls for shopping centre to adopt Changing Places accessible toilets
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Humiliating moment: A mother is forced to change her disabled 11-year-old daughter on the floor of a public toilet due to poor facilities
- Mom shared the struggle of changing her disabled daughter
- The couple sometimes have to use inadequate public facilities.
A mother has revealed how she has been forced to change her disabled daughter on the floor of public toilets due to inadequate facilities.
Perth’s mother, Renae Telo, is the primary caregiver for her daughter Amalie, who was born with lissencephaly, a rare condition also known as smooth brain.
The condition means Amalie has no control over her movements with the disorder aggravated by daily seizures due to uncontrolled epilepsy.
Ms. Telo exposed the difficult reality of taking her daughter shopping in a Facebook video, showing her changing the 11-year-old girl on the floor of a public bathroom.
The distraught mother said she was forced to take the drastic measure saying “accessible toilets aren’t really accessible at all.”
He said there is also a risk that Amalie will hit her head on the tiles or hurt her back when lifting her daughter, who is 130 cm tall and weighs 31 kg.
Renae Telo shared a video showing her disabled daughter being forced to change on the floor of a public restroom (pictured)
Amalie, 11, has lissencephaly which inhibits her movements and she also has daily seizures.
‘So here we are at my local Cockburn Gateway shopping centre. In a parent room with a hard plastic floor with a thatched roof that ripped my knees apart. It was the best choice among tile flooring in handicap bathrooms,” Ms. Telo wrote.
‘I lift her from the wheelchair to the floor, shift her while I’m kneeling on the floor… I lift her off the floor onto my knee. I try to stand up while keeping a sure grip on Amalie and doing my best not to trip over my feet and drop her.
It is a process. A bloody, painful and risky process.
Ms Telo revealed another instance where she “had no choice” but to lay Amalie down on a tiled floor next to a toilet, placing a mat under her and using a sweater as a pillow to protect her head.
“Our only option in this accessible bathroom was to change Amalie on the floor,” she said.
“She didn’t have the seizure monster grace of not showing up during the bath, so we also dealt with a hard tile seizure.”
The National Building Code requires public places built after 2019 to include adult locker rooms.
The rule applies to places like shopping malls, movie theaters, museums, exhibition centers, and galleries.
Ms. Telo pointed out that the buildings that had been built before only required ‘accessible’ toilets.
The mother calls for existing buildings to adopt adult-appropriate locker rooms, including larger rooms, an adult changing table and an elevator.
Another recent photo of Ms. Telo of her changing Amalie on the floor of her local mall because “accessible bathrooms aren’t really accessible.”
The gold standard is the Changing Places model which was established in the UK in 2006 and brought to select Australian locations in 2014.
The organization provides architectural designs and assists in the construction of the locker rooms.
There are currently 243 adult locker rooms across the country, but the vast majority of public places do not have them.
“I hope more places are inclusive and embrace the Changing Places model for accessible restrooms,” said Ms. Telo.
She said Amalie and others in her situation “are entitled to dignity and hygiene just like the rest of us.”