Up until a few decades ago, “handicap” was the term of choice to describe bathrooms designed for people with disabilities.
But when the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, the word handicap was discarded entirely. In the design industry, professionals started to shift their focus to concepts such as accessibility, universal design and aging-in-place.
At Bestbath, we make bathrooms more accessible for everyone and know the language we use to describe our products matters. Rather than referring to our products as those designed for handicapped bathrooms, we choose to use the term accessible.
Why is this distinction so important?
While the term disability refers to the reduced function of a particular body part or organ, handicapped refers to the broader effects of a disability that spread to other parts of someone’s life.
In other words, using the term handicapped insinuates that disabilities hinder people from living the lifestyle they want.
By using the term accessibility, we shift the focus from the barriers presented by a disability to finding freedom from those barriers.
For us, disabilities aren’t handicaps that prevent success. They’re opportunities for innovation.
This perspective causes us to view bathroom design differently. We’ve learned how to see our products through the eyes of our clients. We’ve developed our terminology, our practices and our products to better fit their needs, rather than just our own.
Through it all, we’ve learned to deeply value the unique differences between each of our clients. It’s this type of empathy that drives us to continue engineering new and innovative solutions so people of all abilities can bathe safely.
...And it’s all been more than worth it.
Why?
Because all bathrooms should be as functional as they are beautiful. We believe that the comforts of home should always be kept within everyone’s reach.
