Closomat has installed a Changing Places assisted accessible toilet at three Morrisons stores.

Closomat is Britain’s leading provider in the supply and install of specialist accessible toilets.
The supermarket chain is the only one in the country to begin providing these special WC facilities for people who need help with their intimate care, to the British Standard(1).

Claire Haymes, Closomat Changing Places Project Co-Ordinator, said,

Campaigners for Changing Places have told us that they’ve had to abandon their trolley and leave the store because their loved one has needed toilet facilities whilst doing the weekly shop, and there has been nowhere suitable for them instore. They need more space, and/or special equipment- to help lift and transfer from a wheelchair for example.

Morrisons is the only major supermarket chain that is providing these facilities, to a size and specification(2) that they can be used by the potentially millions of people who need them(3). The facility means that people with disabilities, and those that care for them, can now at least shop at their local Morrisons in (location), knowing there are suitable toilets if they need.

(1) BS8300:2018 Design of an accessible and inclusive built environment. Under BS8300, a Changing Places should be 3m x 4m/ 12m², with a ceiling height of 2.4m, and include at least an overhead track hoist giving full room cover, and adult sized height adjustable changing bench, peninsular WC, height adjustable wash basin, and privacy screen

(2) Tesco has opened some facilities it is calling Changing Places, but the majority are smaller than the specified 12m²

(3) Potential users of a wheelchair-accessible toilet with space, bench and hoist (Changing Places) include:

  • 1.5m wheelchair users
  • 6.5 million people who have either bladder or bowel incontinence
  • 1.5million people with a learning disability
  • 1.2million people living with stroke
  • 62,000 amputees
  • 30,000 people with cerebral palsy
  • 13,000 people with acquired brain injuries
  • 8,500 people with multiple sclerosis
  • 100,000 people with muscular dystrophies
  • 5000 people with motor neurone disease
  • 8,000 people with spina bifida
  • 40,000 people with spinal injuries
  • 120,000 people with a stoma
  • 3.8million adults morbidly obese
  • 0.8million disabled children
  • 8.7million people with osteoarthritis