Radar keys
It would seem since the new precautions surrounding use of ‘facility’ blocks on club sites, more and more people have radar keys to give them access to the disabled facilities.
While I totally appreciate that not all disabilities are visible it does take the proverbial, whilst having to wait to use them to shower my husband, I found that I had waited for a bikini clad teenager leave the facility and get on her bicycle. Indeed, chatting to one chap today, over the toilet waste area he admitted that he had been on Amazon and bought himself a couple of Radar keys which made life much easier for him.
Has the club, I wonder, thought of an alternative lock for issue to those with genuine disabilities? Radar keys are freely available on the internet and f0r those genuinely in need of disabled facilities it is becoming more and more frustrating.
Comments
-
The problem is with the way the keys are easily obtainable. (Something this thread is promoting, btw.) However, the whole point of Radar is that the keys are usable everywhere. For the club to introduce something different would add complication for the genuine Radar key holder and negate the universality of Radar to a certain extent.
Besides, how long do you think it would take for fake club keys to appear and, also, how would the club know if a request to be issued with a club key was from someone with a genuine need? When different keys were issued, it was quite rightly club policy never to question the entitlement.
I agree with you that the system is abused but I don’t believe the answer on site is for the club to use different keys, although I don’t know what the solution is.
0 -
I have just looked at the Amazon website and there seems to be no impediment to anyone buying a Radar key. I also went onto the Argos website and this was one of the questions asked, and I quote :-
Do you need to show proof of disability when buying this key??
Question from Kgw
Age: 45 to 54
Location: South Yorkshire
Gender: Female
A
Hi KgwIn short No
but please bear in mind -
Not all disabilities are visible or obvious to the onlooker so it is important not to be too quick to judge whether a person should or shouldn’t be using the toilet for disabled people. There are a wide range of problems and conditions which may require a person to carry a RADAR key. Perhaps they cannot get up the stairs to the regular loo, they may be using a catheter, suffer from incontinence and be unable to queue or have some other, invisible ailment which requires the use of the disabled people’s toilet. Anyone using a disabled people's toilet without legitimate reason should bear in mind that they may be unnecessarily preventing a disabled person from accessing vital facilities. This could lead to discomfort, distress or embarrassment. Please note there is not minimum age restriction for buying one of these keys.Hope this helps
So it seems that anyone determined to have a Radar key can get one and, as far as I know beyond common decency there is nothing to prevent anyone buying one.
David
0 -
That’s absolutely correct. My first key came via a medical charity but, when I decided to get a spare, I got it easily from the aforementioned online retailer and no questions were asked. It seems very wrong for it to be this way but my need was genuine and already established.
0 -
agree with all that has been said, but what about the people that say they don't want to be male/female but called this /that, what do the club do, allow them to use either facilities. Would they allow me to push my wife in a wheel chair into the female block to attend to her needs or take her into the male toilets. I am sorry to say this but the world is getting beyond a joke, you cannot say this/that, you cannot do this/that and covid is making matters worse.
0 -
It does seem to be becoming more of a problem, but it is impossible to tell whether a person should be using disabled facilities if the disability is not obvious.
Previously there were different keys in use on some Club sites, while others had the Radar lock, so sometimes you had to ask for a key, and there was a limit to how many were available. The main problem however was that until you went to check, or remembered to ask on arrival, you did not know whether you needed a different key. And sometimes by the time you realised, the office was shut.
My wife has an invisible disability and needs help with showering, so sometimes we use the disabled room, sometimes we use our own facilities. It depends on the weather, how far away from the block we are, how far from a service point, and on the actual facility. One we tried to use had such miserable water flow we just came back and used our own! There are also some, not on Club sites, where the provision is totally inadequate.....hose far too short as outlet fixed too high up.....fixed rose high up.....etc. She does not however need to use a disabled toilet, so our use is very limited, and always late evening.
It is bad that some people think it is fine for them to use the disabled facilities when they do not need to do so, but it would be difficult to prevent. Signs pointing out that they are inconveniencing those who have a genuine need is about all that can be done, but are unlikely to have any effect on such selfish people.
The problem with the keys being available to buy is now unsolvable IMO. They would have needed to be keys which could not be easily copied, and which were only issued, by one supplier, to those who could provide a form signed by their GP to validate the need.
0 -
I think KjellNN's last paragraph is about the best way to tackle the problem but a mammoth task to start again from what we have at present.
0 -
It is only in recent years that the cc have adopted on most sites the radar key on disabled facilities, in the past,it needed a key from the office to access ,
With the demise of public toilets ,bus and taxi drivers to mention just a couple have "obtained" radar keys , as it gives them more chance of finding a toilet
ps my OH has a legitimate radar key which we Both use together ,as she is quite unsteady and prone to fall without warning
0
