World Toilet Day 2019 – Get Involved

10/10/2019

World Toilet Day takes place annually on 19th November.

Every year on World Toilet Day, we try to highlight the common issues faced by disabled people when they use accessible toilets when they are out and about. Last year for World Toilet Day we asked you to share stories of the strangest things you have found in accessible loos for our #NotACupboard campaign. The infographic below shows 30 of the bizarre things people told us they had found stored in accessible toilets. This helped raise the issue of accessible toilets frequently being used as storage cupboards. This year we’re looking for your help to get businesses thinking about their accessible toilets.

There are three ways to get involved: review accessible loos on Euan’s Guide, ask businesses to take part in our #RedCordCampaign to check the red emergency cords in their accessible toilets are working correctly, and add Red Cord Cards to the accessible toilets that you visit.

Infographic description: Illustration listing 30 of the strangest things disabled people told us they found stored in accessible loos. The thirty things are: confidential documents, chef uniforms, washing machine, Christmas decor, lost property, mountain bike, traffic cones, Venetian mirror, tinned tomatoes, a moped, beer kegs, old mattresses, a pool table, manager's office, paint tins, games machine, surfboard, 16th century fireplace, Neil Diamond tribute act, bricks, champagne buckets, 600 toilet rolls, staff cloakroom, mannequins and parts, junk for sale, singing mirror, large net of balloons, giant motorbike, broken TVs, and a kitchen sink.

How to get involved this year

1. Reviewing Accessible Loos

We’re asking for you to leave reviews on Euan’s Guide for the good and bad accessible toilets you come across. This could be toilets in shops, restaurants, hospitals or public buildings. Wherever you are, we want your views on the venue’s accessible loos!

Review the accessibility of the venue as a whole but give specific information and a star rating for the toilets. A picture or two can also be a great way to demonstrate what you loved or hated about the toilet.

You can also share your thoughts and images on social media using #ReviewsInTheLoos.

Not only does writing a review on Euan’s Guide help other disabled people find where good accessible loos are (and ones to avoid), but the reviews submitted on our website are emailed to the venue. Your reviews are an important tool for providing them with honest feedback and it can be a great way of getting them to act to make improvements.

Write a review >>

2. Ask businesses to get involved

We’re asking businesses up and down the country to get involved and test the red emergency cords in their accessible toilets this World Toilet Day. This simple action could potentially save lives.

Although red emergency cords are designed as a safety feature, they become unusable if the alarm does not work, if no-one responds to the alarm or if the cord is not reachable so a person in distress is unable to raise the alarm. Unfortunately, all three problems are happening way too often so now we’re asking businesses to act to make sure this is not the case.

Our #RedCordCampaign on World Toilet Day is a great opportunity for staff, managers and organisations to learn about the importance of red emergency cords, understanding how they should look and what to do if the alarm goes off. We’ve put together loads of useful resources for them including what steps to take on Tuesday 19th November when testing the red emergency cord and information on how their red emergency cords should be positioned.

Why not ask your local shop / pub / restaurant etc. to take part?

How businesses can get involved >>

Graphic showing a Red Cord Card against a tiled background

3. Attach Red Cord Cards

There are now well over 50,000 Red Cord Cards already in accessible toilets across the UK. We’re so grateful to everyone who has already got involved and left Red Cord Cards on red emergency cords as a way to remind everyone that red emergency cords should be left untied and reachable for someone lying on the ground. We’d love to see a Red Cord Card in every accessible toilet. Can you help us make this happen?

Leaving a Red Cord Card on a red emergency cord is an easy way to let staff, cleaners and other toilet users know how important these cords are and inform them of how they should be left.

Order Red Cord Cards >>