You are out on the town for a fun evening with your friends when nature calls. Trying to find a suitable bathroom can be stressful for anyone, but you can’t just duck into any bathroom: you need to find one that is wheelchair accessible. Thankfully, you live in the age of smartphones where any and all information is always in your pocket—including where to find a wheelchair-friendly bathroom.
Check out WheelMate, a free app available for iPhone and Android smartphones that helps you easily locate accessible bathrooms near you. And the best part? It’s constantly updated. The app is monitored by wheelchair users to ensure that the location posted is a legitimate accessible place. It even lets you know if an accessible bathroom has been closed. Pretty handy. You can share your knowledge by adding locations to the app as well—you can even share your go-to, super-secret wheelchair-friendly public bathroom with the world. Or not. The app also lets you see and add accessible parking spaces nearby.
The app uses your smartphone’s GPS to obtain your current location, and then it provides the wheelchair accessible bathrooms in the area. Simply touch the icon and it will provide you the name and address of the location. It also allows you to view the bathroom ratings. You can even rate the facilities yourself. Click on the arrow, and you can give the location a thumbs up or down and add your own comment about bathroom’s quality. Or lack of quality.
If you are headed out in an unfamiliar city, you can scope out areas before you leave from your PC as well by going to Wheelmate.com. You can even create a printable list to carry with you. With WheelMate,you can always be prepared for nature’s call!
Disclaimer: Coloplast, maker of Wheelmate, is a regular sponsor of Magee Rehab programs and events.
