Having no choice but to leave theme parks or movies, shunted to the side at airports, or forced to change diapers on restroom floors…all of these scenarios have been harsh realities for Kim Kirkwood-Boulter’s family and for families of those with disabilities due to a lack of accessible restrooms in public spaces.
Kim is the co-head for the Ohio chapter of Changing Spaces. This advocacy group is made up of allies across the country and works to create a more dignified restroom experience for those with disabilities by promoting the installation of universal changing tables.
Kim is the mother to an 11-year-old son with disabilities, Kim has experienced the frustration of inaccessible public spaces first-hand, in turn becoming a passionate champion for universal changing tables and a strong advocate for upholding the dignity of those with disabilities.
Let’s start with some background: Who are you and what was the genesis of Changing Spaces?
My name is Kim Kirkwood-Boulter, and I am a mom to an 11-year-old boy who has multiple disabilities. When he was about 5 or 6, I tried to change him on a baby changing table, because he still needed to be changed and probably always will due to his disabilities, and that was a very dangerous situation. I felt like the baby changing table was going to break under him.
So, after that I started advocating for more accessible restrooms so that I can meet his needs in the restroom. I met my co-leader of Changing Spaces Ohio, Jennifer Corcoran, and we connected through the National Changing Spaces Campaign, started our Ohio chapter, and have been advocating ever since.
What do you think have been the obstacles to getting more UCTs installed?
I think one barrier to convince businesses, small governments, parks, etc. to install these is a lack of awareness that this is a problem, and that it is a barrier for a lot of people. Current restrooms don’t meet everyone’s needs.
If you’re not a caregiver you may not have ever been in the situation where you need to take care of someone or change someone who is not able to use a typical restroom, not able to necessarily balance on their own, or have the strength to stand; then they just don’t understand that need. We’ve been doing a lot of education and trying to convey the message that this is important and that there are a lot of people missing from our communities that don’t go out a lot because there aren’t restrooms they can use while they’re away.
You have certainly been instrumental in creating more awareness for this issue by talking to the right people to implement UCTs in new buildings or retrofitting current buildings. Do you think that Ohio is making progress?
Yes, I think that we are making great progress in Ohio, and I hope it continues. We’ve got a lot of great allies in Ohio that have stepped up to the plate. Our Department of Developmental Disabilities, all our county boards of developmental disabilities, and our governor have been very supportive of this movement, and I hope that we see more towns and businesses coming on board to make their buildings and restrooms more accessible so that everybody can be in their communities, be involved, and live their best life.
It’s clear that the current lack of accessible bathrooms presents an issue for those with disabilities and their caregivers. Say you’re going out with your son [Aiden] and are going to be gone for a long period of time during the day, like the zoo for example, what does that entail for you from a planning standpoint?
When we are planning to go somewhere new, the first thing I would do would be to pack our picnic blanket because that would be my backup way to address his restroom needs. If I need to change his undergarments, I may need to lay the picnic blanket down somewhere and change him. Hopefully I’d be able to find somewhere semi-private because he is 11 and it’s not appropriate for him to be exposed to people passing by, and it’s not appropriate for unsuspecting people walking by to see something they weren’t planning on seeing. It really is a matter of preserving his dignity. At the same time, I don’t like him to have to sit soiled because I do want to keep him clean and healthy.
So, I would pack our picnic blanket and I would maybe call the place we are going to ask if they have any accommodations for changing someone bigger than a baby. I also might look on their website to see if they have something listed there for an accommodation. It does take quite a lot of planning to make sure we are going somewhere that I can take care of him. I would also check the Universal Changing Table Map to see if there’s already been a changing table installed at that location.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that map?
Sure. So, the Universal Changing Table Map is a product of the Changing Spaces Campaign, Changing Spaces Ohio, and Inspired Access Foundation.
We started it a couple of years ago. It started because I was flying home from a spring break trip with my son Aiden, who was nine at the time. Due to bad weather, we were rerouted to Cincinnati. He badly needed a change, his diaper was very soiled. I asked several employees at the airport if they happened to have a universal changing table. They said no and they directed me to the mother’s nursing pod which was much too small, and I would have had to lay him on the floor. I ended up changing him in the women’s room on the countertop. As soon as I got home, I looked at the website for the Cincinnati Airport and - lo and behold - there is a large, height adjustable, adult sized changing table at that airport, but the staff didn’t know about it. I would have much rather changed him in a private bathroom where he would not have been exposed to anyone, on a large changing table rather than a skinny little countertop in the women’s room.
So, I decided that I wanted to make this map to index all of the changing tables in the United States. It is a free resource for anyone who needs to find an adult sized changing table and I hope that people can use it to plan their day, plan their route, plan their vacation, and find a changing table that’s near them and not have to resort to changing them on the floor or in the grass or in a vehicle unnecessarily if there’s one nearby.
Have there been times when you couldn’t go somewhere because of lack of an adult sized changing table?
There have been plenty of times we have either not gone somewhere because we would be there for a very long time, such as a theme park or a movie where you pay to enter, and you may have to leave in the middle of your planned day because your loved one needs to be changed and there’s nowhere to change them. We usually don’t go to dinner, we eat at home, or we don’t go to movies, we watch movies at home. There’s a lot of lost revenue for those businesses out there because we don’t go and spend our money at those places.
Even going to our community pool is difficult when I’m changing him on a pool lounger and his 8-year-old brother is holding up a blanket to give him a little bit of privacy. When you go to the pool and you have several kids with you, they want to stay the whole day because they’re having so much fun. Having to not only leave with your child who needs to be changed, but to also pull their siblings away from the fun, is a tough situation.
We are so grateful to Kim and Jennifer for all the hard work they’ve done to raise awareness around this important issue and create real change in Ohio and beyond. Be sure to follow and support the Changing Spaces Campaign on their journey of creating accessible public restrooms in Ohio's first Buc-ees location and in our communities around Ohio.
