[VD: An Instagram video from MollyBurkeOfficial about a Braille bathroom sign with a tactile map of the bathroom layout.
"I'm at the Guide Dog center here in Australia." She touches the sign. "This is a legend, a tactile and Braille map of the bathroom right outside the door. "Do you want to know what the hardest part of my day is as a blind person? 'Cause it's probably not what you expect. It's not the fact that I can't drive, though it's not ideal. It is the fact that public bathrooms are all designed differently. Do you know how stressful it is when I have to pee in public on my own? My boyfriend leaves me at the door of the women's room, and I have to walk into the great unknown. Is there gonna be a line? Where in line am I supposed to stand?
When I find the toilet—well, first off, when I'm with my guide dog, I need the accessible stall. So I have to feel my way to the big stall. Then I get there—hopefully, it's open. If not, I stand, I wait, I get in. I have to find where is the toilet paper, where is the toilet. I have to hope to God it's clean, 'cause I can't see it. Then I have to find the flusher—is it a pull? Is it automatic? Who knows. Then I have to find my way to the sinks. Where is the soap? Where is the dryer?"
She gesticulates towards the tactile sign in dramatic relief. "Hello, we have found the solution!" She begins tracing the Braille writing. "So up here, it says 'female and ambulatory toilet map,' and then it tells me A.T. means it's the ambulatory, which means it's the larger accessible stall. T means toilet. Down here, we have D means dryer. So then I go here"—she traces the map, which shows the layout of the bathroom, with Braille letters marking significant locations—"and I know that this stall would be the one that my guide dog and I would use 'cause this is the A.T., the bigger stall. Next to it, the two ones to the right are both normal-sized toilets. Down here we have D, so this means it's the dryer for drying my hands. We have B, S, and B, which means I now know, if I'm at the sinks, the soap is in between the two basins." She looks at the viewer. "I want this. Ooh!"
She turns back to the map and traces the gap indicating the entrance. "And I know—look, here, I walk in the door, so I immediately orient myself. Toilets are right in front, I would go far left, right next to the door is gonna be my sinks—like, this is a game changer. This is a game changer—I want these everywhere. This is my plea. My next campaign: How to make toileting more accessible to everyone." End VD.]
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