This Woman Names and Shames Restaurants with Bad Disabled Toilets

Last month, the first Blue Badge Style (BBS) Awards took place. Recognising restaurants that make efforts to welcome guests with disabilities, the awards include Best Budget Bar, Best European Venue, and Best Listed Building.

BBS also gives prizes for those restaurateurs who provide good disabled bathroom facilities. German Gymnasium in London won two awards for Best High End Restaurant and Best Loo, while small restaurant franchise Tom's Kitchen won Most Ludicrous Loo for a tiny toilet-stroke-storage-cupboard.

The awards were founded by Fiona Jarvis, who discovered that she had MS when she kept falling off her high-heels. "People thought I was drunk—and that was the confusing thing, as I could well have been," she writes on her blog, Blue Badge Style, which she launched in 2011.

Described as a "17th century Salon … an assembly of guests consisting of, if not leaders, then a stylish and informed group," the blog hands out BBS Ticks (a rating system from one to three) based on three categories: ambience ("Is it cool, trendy, fashionable, or smart?"), accessibility ("Can you get into the venue easily? Is there a ramp or lift?"), and facilities ("Is there a disabled toilet? Is it clean? Are there enough bars—perpendicular and horizontal?).

This year, Jarvis wanted to raise the importance of accessibility in the hospitality sector and kicked off the idea of an awards ceremony. Something "unusually positive," she says, in the world of disability access.

MUNCHIES sat down with Jarvis to find out about terrible loos, brass grab rails, and the missed opportunity of the disabled pound.

MUNCHIES: Hi Fiona. What really stood out about D&D London's German Gymnasium? Fiona Jarvis: They won the Best Loo award for having all the right facilities, but getting away from the clinical style of most disabled toilets. "Typically German, in the best possible way!" was a comment by the judges.

The design of their loo follows the style of the rest of the restaurant. The music was calming and the wallpaper interesting with high quality brass fittings used as grab rails.

The German Gymnasium is easy to access and nowhere is out of bounds due to an internal lift. It's stylish and there's no panic from the staff when a wheelchair user arrives. All this is achieved in a Listed Building—all too often an excuse to exclude disabled facilities.

What's the criterion for a good disabled loo? Primarily grab rails (five is the prerequisite), room to transfer or manoeuvre, a mirror and washbasin at the right height for wheelchair users, and signs that are distinguishable for the partially sighted. Oh, and an emergency cord you can reach from the floor.

The rest is what you'd have in any good loo like smellies, soap, and towels or hand driers. Lack of cardboard boxes, baby chairs, or any other things you can find in a storage room.

At one good restaurant in Soho, the loo was filled with boxes of water. There was no room to turn my wheelchair so it was un-usable, however the staff told me it would be empty by the end of the night, once it was all consumed. Not by me though, as a full bladder was the last thing I needed.

Do you have to purposefully make trips to the loo to give it the full review treatment or do you just quickly have a look in? We make notes and take pictures if possible. Sometimes, we call and ask detailed questions that usually take more than one call as staff rarely know what we're talking about and have to go and examine the toilet.

You've become known as the "Toilet Police." How did that come about? Because I usually put pictures on Facebook or Twitter of what we call "Ludicrous Loos." People have just enjoyed these, as they're funny, if not distressing.

Tom's Kitchen won Most Ludicrous Loo this year, didn't it? Why was that? It was a well-designed disabled loo that was wasted, as it had no room to manoeuvre. It was used as a storage facility.

Is a restaurant abusing the disabled loos like this quite common? Yes, it's very rare you can use a disabled toilet in a restaurant discreetly. There is usually a kerfuffle because there are objects in front of the door, such as tables, coats, cleaning materials, and even a bed. This is all because of a lack of storage in overall restaurant design.

It's also very disappointing to find a disabled loo that has plenty of room but no grab rails. That's very common. Or ones that are just dirty white plastic in décor.

So even when there are good amenities, they usually forego style for function? Disability equipment is still cheap and plastic, where function and health and safety take precedence over design.

We need to encourage more designers to get involved with disability design. Our collaboration with Brunel University students produced some brilliant things, like a stylish glass holder that attaches to your wheelchair at parties and a beautiful leather bag, which you can open from the side, making it easy to access and safer on the back of your wheelchair.

Disability equipment needs to put more emphasis on style. It's changing but just adding colour to plastic, clumsy equipment is not my definition of style.

OK, so I've been a bit obsessed with the loo reviews. Tell me about the importance of the Blue Badge Style Awards? They are important because we want all public buildings to become proud of their disabled facilities and therefore make them both functional and stylish.

It's part of everyday life so accessibility in its broadest meaning should be embraced and coveted from the beginning of a design project. If owners, restaurateurs, and hoteliers demand it and aspire to win a BBS Tick or Award, then things will change through economic reasons and not heavy-handed laws that are flouted wherever possible at the moment.

The disability community will also have a trusted standard—a BBS Tick—which they can rely on without having to "military plan" a night out.

In addition, a special BBS Gallery of photos or virtual tour of a venue will allow disabled people to assess whether they can visit without multiple calls to restaurants asking about their facilities. Saying you're wheelchair accessible is not enough.

On your site, you say that Michelin-starred restaurants in particular fail to provide amenities for disabled people. Why do you think that is? Is there a notion that if you're disabled you're on the fringes of society and therefore don't belong in the elite? Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants just don't think about disability. They assume their restaurants meet legal standards or often they'll use the "I've never had a complaint" or "It's an old or listed building" phrases.

That's either because disabled people know they're inaccessible and don't want to make a fuss or because they know they can't go there. The listed building issue is wrong, as anywhere can be accessible. It's just a question of money.

They forget that disabled people usually have friends, family, and carers with them so they can be missing a huge market. I think there is also a perception that disabled people have no money as they're on benefits. Even if they are, their friends will want them to go out at least once a year for a special celebration. They also forget the ageing wealthy population who don't regard themselves as disabled but still need extra help. The disability pound is £212 billion.

How have things changed over the 20 years that you've been a wheelchair user? Some things have improved as many restaurants now have accessible and portable ramps. However, the toilet issue is still annoying. Why should I have to use a nearby grotty loo down the road when every other customer gets to use clean, lovely loos in an establishment? The building regulations actually state that a disabled unisex loo should take priority if there's lack of space.

Do restaurants need to be pushed into making changes for disabled people then? Mine and most other disabled organisations believe the economic imperative should encourage change particularly as the laws and regulations have loopholes that rely on individuals to sue to get things changed. There is also a lack of policing within cash strapped Local Authorities so, again, identifying problems is up to the disabled customer. We also believe that Brexit will slow down change.

As a disabled person, what are your most memorable dining experiences both in a negative and positive light? Negative is going to Midsummer House in Cambridge and having to leave and use a public toilet in a nearby pub. I've never visited again.

The other is The Hand and Flowers in Marlowe, where they said I could BYO ramp. When I arrived, I was manhandled into the pub, only to find that a new conservatory had been added that was accessible and should have included a flat access to the old part of the pub.

Positive has always been at Sartoria in London, where my every need is catered for and I'm always treated like any other customer—with respect and not patronised or ignored.

I also love going to Europe where even if there is no access people are eager to help and there's no health and safety issue in providing basic human kindness, like carrying me up steps.

Thank you for speaking with me, Fiona.