[Video shows a woman with a white cane pointing to a braille sign outside of a bathroom that includes a map. We zoom in on the sign while she taps parts of it and says,
I'm at a Guide Dog center here in Australia. This is a legend, a tactile and Braille map of the bathroom, right outside the door.
We zoom back out while she continues, with large hand gestures,
Do you want to know what the hardest part of my day is, as a blind person? 'Cause it's probably not what you expect. It's not the fact that I can't drive, though it's not ideal. It is the fact that public bathrooms are all designed differently.
Do you know how stressful it is, when I have to pee in public on my own? My boyfriend leaves me at the door of the women's room, and I have to walk into the great unknown. Is there going to be a line? Where in line am I supposed to stand? When I find the toilet - well, first off, when I'm with my guide dog I need the accessible stall, so I have to feel my way to the big stall. Then, when I get there, hopefully it's open. If not, I stand. I wait. I get in. I have to find where is the toilet paper? Where is the toilet? I have to hope to God it's clean 'cause I can't see it. Then I have to find the flusher - is it a pull, is it automatic - who knows? Then I have to find my way to the sinks. Where is the soap? Where is the dryer?
She turns back to tap excitedly on the sign.
Hello! We have found the solution.
She starts telling us what the sign says as her fingers skim over it.
So, up here it says 'female and ambulatory toilet map', and then it tells me 'A-T' means it's the 'ambulatory', which means it's the larger accessible stall. 'T' means 'toilet'. Um, down here we have, like, 'D' means 'dryer'.
She moves down to the map, showing us the location of the three stalls along the back wall.
So then I go here, and I know that this stall would be the one that my guide dog and I would use - 'cause it's the 'A-T', the bigger stall. Next to it, the two ones to the right are both normal sized toilets.
She goes back to the top left corner of the map to follow the left wall towards the front of the room. Halfway, she gets to,
Down here we have 'D', so this means it's the dryer for drying my hands.
She continues down, and at the front of the room takes turns tapping two squares for 'B', and one between them for 'S'.
We have 'S' and 'B', which means I now know: if I'm at the sinks, the soap is in between the two basins.
We zoom back out, but then she remembers something, so we go back to look at the opening at the bottom right of the map.
I want this! ... Ooh! And I know, look, here I walk in the door, so I immediately orient myself: toilets are right in front, I would go far left. Right next to the door is gonna be my sinks.
We zoom back out so she can finish,
Like, this, this is a game changer! This is a game changer. I want these everywhere. This is my plea. My next campaign. How to make toileting more accessible to everyone.
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