I REFER to the letter, 'Don't lock up toilets for disabled in MRT stations'' by Mr Leo Chen Ian (ST, May 18).
I understand his frustration as I face this problem when my wheelchair-bound mother needs to use a toilet for the disabled.
MRT stations are not the only places where such toilets are locked. Many shopping centres also lock them up because of irresponsible and inconsiderate use of such facilities by people who are simply too lazy to queue up to use regular toilets.
Now smoking is banned in toilets, many smokers make use of toilets for the disabled for a quick puff.
Last year, at Plaza Singapura, a smoker came out after we had waited for several minutes. However, we could not enter immediately because the cubicle was so full of smoke, my mother had a coughing fit.
I called the National Environment Agency to highlight the problem after I found stand-alone toilets for the disabled locked up.
On another occasion, at Chinatown MRT station, I knocked on the toilet door to find out if the locked toilet was occupied. Hearing no response, I asked the cleaner to unlock it. He insisted that there was someone inside.
As my mother had a bad stomach ache, I knocked again, pleading with whoever was inside to hurry up. Again silence.
After some 15 minutes, a man and a woman in their 20s emerged together. They left behind a wet toilet.
After the long wait, my mother had already dirtied herself and I spent the next half hour cleaning her up. Can you imagine how difficult it is to manoeuvre an elderly person who can barely stand in a cramped and slippery cubicle half occupied by a wheelchair?
Once, at VivoCity, when the cleaner opened a locked toilet on my request, I found that the lights did not work. Apparently, the supervisor switched them off at the mains to deter able-bodied people from using and dirtying the toilet for the disabled. I had to grope about in pitch darkness to shift my mother from the wheelchair onto the toilet seat and back.
The problem of locked toilets for the disabled lies with inconsiderate users who leave the toilets unflushed, urine and shoe prints on the toilet cover, and soggy toilet paper all over.
Frustrated cleaners are sometimes scolded when they try to dissuade able-bodied people who like the privacy of such toilets to smoke, change their clothes or put on make-up.
Could able-bodied users please show some consideration for the disabled?
Jillian Woon Sook Yin (Ms)
