*facepalm*

[sarah]

I'm here in Silver Spring, Maryland with reginagiraffe and synecdochic, having dinner at a Chipotle. Syne popped into the ladies, only to find the handicapped stall occupied by a very thin woman, crouching over the toilet, vomiting with the stall door open.

Syne asked if she was okay -- if she needed help of any sort. "I'm fine," the woman said.

Well, that's debatable. And you shouldn't be occupying that stall, among other things.

Comments

[firecat]

I get being upset that the only toilet you can use is occupied.

That said, I think the accessibility fail here isn't that a thin woman is puking in the handicapped stall, it's that there's only one large/handicapped stall.

The one time I puked in a public toilet (in a cafeteria, because of food poisoning that came on very suddenly), I used the handicapped stall. I was so weak from puking that afterward I had to lie on the floor, and in the handicapped stall I could lie down without putting my head right up against the toilet.

I would have been mortified if I'd kept a person from using that toilet if that was the only toilet they could use. But lying on the floor in one of the smaller stalls, staring up at the toilet bowl, would have made my nausea worse. And lying on the floor in the public part of the restroom would have felt pretty unsafe. As it was, I was fortunate in that no one came into the restroom while I was using it.

If someone has only a temporary disability, I think they still get to use the handicapped stall.