Resources

Find published information on toilet design. Our resource bank includes guidance, standards, regulation, toolkits, websites and research.  Resources can be filtered by type or subject area, using the keywords shown.

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Author/s:
Lauren White
Summary:
Drawing on a qualitative study based on 25 daily diaries and follow-up interviews with people living the the common health condition irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), this paper explores toilet access through the lens of mundane mobilities.
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Publication date:
2021
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Keywods:
AccessibilityDisabilityPublic Toilets
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Sotiris Vardoulakis, Daniela A.Espinoz Oyarcea, Erica Donner
Summary:
A review focused on indoor, publicly accessible washrooms, of 38 studies in 13 countries. using environmental sampling, laboratory, and epidemiological studies on viral and bacterial infection transmission.
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Publication date:
2021
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Keywods:
Covid-19Public HealthPublic Toilets
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Stephanie J. Dancer, Yuguo Li, Alwyn Hart, Julian W. Tang, Davey L. Jones
Summary:
This narrative review examines the evidence suggestive of transmission risk through use of public toilets and concludes that such a risk cannot be lightly disregarded. A range of mitigating actions are suggested for both users of public toilets and those that are responsible for their design, maintenance and management.
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Publication date:
2021
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Keywods:
Covid-19DesignMaintenancePublic Health
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Jen Slater, Charlotte Jones, Lisa Procter
Summary:
This paper, in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, interrogates how school toilets and ‘school readiness’ are used to assess children against developmental milestones. Such developmental norms both inform school toilet design and practice, and perpetuate normative discourses of childhood as middle-class, white, ‘able’, heteronormative, cissexist and inferior to adulthood.
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Publication date:
2019
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Keywods:
GenderInclusion
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Charlotte Jones, Jen Slater
Summary:
As one of the few explicitly gender-separated spaces, the toilet has become a prominent site of conflict and a focal point for ‘gender-critical’ feminism. In this article for The Sociological Review, we draw upon an AHRC-funded project, Around the Toilet, to reflect upon and critique trans-exclusionary and trans-hostile narratives of toilet spaces.
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Publication date:
2020
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Keywods:
GenderInclusion
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Clara Greed
Summary:
In this paper, it is argued that public toilets policy is a town planning issue, crucial to creating sustainable, efficient, accessible and equitable cities. Ways of integrating toilet provision into city-wide strategic planning policy and local urban design are discussed. The paper first reviews global sanitation issues, and makes comparisons with inadequate public toilet provision in the UK.
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Publication date:
2016
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Keywods:
Built EnvironmentDesignGender
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Jen Slater, Charlotte Jones, Lisa Procter
Summary:
In this paper (published in Gender and Education) we argue that school toilets function as one civilising site [Elias, 1978. The Civilising Process. Oxford: Blackwell] in which children learn that disabled and queer bodies are out of place. This paper is the first to offer queer and crip perspectives on school toilets.
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Publication date:
2016
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Keywods:
DisabilityGenderSchool Toilets
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Barbara Penner
Summary:
This paper, published in Journal of Design History, considers the following two points: first, how the design and siting of a women's lavatory is not a neutral act but one that is shaped by historically and culturally specific notions; and second, how an everyday space such as a public lavatory actively positions (and re-positions) its users in relation to the existing power structure, providing an opportunity for small resistances to the status quo to occur.
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Publication date:
2001
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Keywods:
GenderHistoryPublic Toilets
Type:
Academic Paper

Author/s:
Jo-Anne Bichard
Summary:
This PhD thesis uses the case of the publicly accessible toilet to demonstrate how the design of these facilities has continued to present a ‘special needs’ approach, opposed to inclusive design.
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Publication date:
2014
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Keywods:
AccessibilityBuilt EnvironmentDisability
Type:
Academic Paper