Fitting out a disabled toilet or reduced-mobility washroom involves careful planning and consideration.
Our accessible selection of compact, low-noise hand dryers and disabled toilet accessories are crucial to ensuring your washroom is compliant and user-friendly. They’ve all been designed with colour, size, accessibility, noise output and cleanliness in mind.
Keeping obstructions to a minimum should be the prime consideration when you purchase disabled toilet hand dryers. Floorspace must remain as spacious and uncluttered as possible for wheelchair users and those with greatly reduced mobility.
Our Airbox H, Beaver and Gorillo Junior models pack all the power of our other dryers into a super compact design. The tiny wall footprint and low protrusion of these dryers ensure that wheelchairs are afforded maximum maneuverability.
Running at 1150W or less, they’re also highly economical to run – great news for the planet and your pocket!
The Gorillo Junior dries hands in under 9 seconds.
Hand dryer accessibility doesn’t stop with the needs of wheelchair users – disabled hand dryer height should not discriminate against any level of disability.
The Airbox H and Crocodillo T2 wall-mounted hand dryers are easy to position at any height, and both have acute sensors which can be engaged from beneath, whether users are seated or standing.
Thinking about a blade dryer? Great news! Your disabled washroom can also benefit from the speedy drying times and mess-free features that make blades universally popular.
With twice the standard number of motion sensors, our Gorillo Junior is our most accessible blade dryer – that’s because it’s the only hands-in model in our range that can be operated by inserting the hands from the sides or from above.
For wheelchair users especially, being at ear-level with a shrieking hand dryer can be an unpleasant (often deafening) experience.
With a noise output range of 70–73 decibels, our disabled toilet hand dryers are all beautifully quiet, while delivering the same efficiency and quick drying times you’d expect.
Our most user-friendly dryer by far, the adjustable speed and heat settings on the Gorillo Junior enable you to create an even more peaceful ambience in your disabled facilities with the simple flick of a switch.
A dryer that doesn’t dowse disabled users with water when they dry their hands is one of the minimum standards for disabled washrooms.
Those who are more likely to be positioned beneath the dryer nozzle – wheelchair users in particular – would benefit from the installation of a Crocodillo T2. Featuring a high-velocity airflow and unique water collection tray, this considerate model dries the hands in seconds and prevents liquid from flying onto the user or the washroom floor.
A hand dryer for your disabled washroom is a great first step, but to optimise your bathroom for users with restricted mobility, there are various disabled toilet accessories that you can invest in.
To complement our range of mobility-friendly dryers, we recommend fitting the following in your disabled toilet:
Disabled bathrooms can be a little difficult to design – they need to be built for the broadest spectrum of reduced-mobility requirements possible, so taking the time to plan them properly is essential.
Here are some design tips for disabled bathrooms you may find useful:
For visually impaired people, it is suggested that the hand dryer is not the same colour as the wall on which it is placed. Therefore, a white dryer on a white wall is not recommended. Polished chrome is a highly reflective surface and can be confusing and disorientating for some people so should be avoided in accessible washrooms.
For hands-under dryers, you should allow around 940mm between the air nozzle and the floor.
If you’ve got a hands-in model, the top of the dryer should be around 875mm above the floor.
Although not explicitly mentioned in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) specifies that there should be no protrusion from the washroom wall greater than 4 inches (100mm). The Antillo Slim Hand Dryer and the Beaver ECO Slimline Hand Dryer are both 10cm deep.
Providing grab rails is vital – they help to provide stability for disabled users as they navigate the bathroom, and can help to avoid slips and falls.
Grab rails should ideally be a contrasting colour to the wall to assist visually impaired users.
If you offer shower facilities to non-disabled users, you must provide one in your disabled bathroom.
Make sure there’s enough room for a wheelchair to access the shower area, and that a shower chair is installed.
According to UK building regulations, wheelchair users should be able to comfortably approach, transfer to and use the sanitary facilities provided.
The recommended minimum size for disabled bathrooms is at least 2,200mm deep x 1,500mm wide, but the more space you can allow for wheelchairs to turn, the more comfortable the experience will be for the user.