Hand dryers

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My son attends a unit attached to mainstream school specifically for children with Autism. He has recently moved class. His new class has a toilet with a hand dryer. I have asked that they remove the hand dryer or allow him to use the toilet in the old class. They have refused.

My son does not have the language to give his view. Could as many of you as possible give yours?
It is ok if you disagree with me and agree with the school. All views welcome.

Our exchange is below:

School:
Regarding the hand dryers. The issue of xxx being a bit reluctant to go to the toilet is more an issue of flexibility than about being scared because of the hand dryer. There is no need for him to use the hand dryers as he can use paper towels instead. As we know it takes him some time to get to know new environments. This is improving daily. I would be concerned that we don't disrupt his now increasingly successful transition to xxx, by having him use the toilets in xxxxx. We will give him the option today so he is in control of that.

In regard to the hand dryers being installed as part of the building specification; advice was sort on whether or not they should be used. It was agreed that they would be mainly on the basis that hand dryers are part of everyday life and shouldn’t represent a barrier to inclusion in the community. I agree with this sentiment.

My response:
You are mistaken, xxx is terrified of hand driers. It doesn’t matter whether he has to use them or not, he is aware that they can go off unexpectedly. He is terrified of hand driers because the noise hurts him due to sensory processing difficulties which are part of his disability.

Stairs are a part of everyday life, you do not insist a child who is unable to walk to use them to access toileting facilities. I offered 2 different ways in which you can make reasonable adjustments for his disability. You have refused. This is discrimination due to disability under the equality act and I will therefore raise with the governing body.

It'll be interesting to know how they respond.

Your arguments seem sensible enough, but they won't want to go to the inconvenience of removing their driers. It might make them listen better if you could get a health professional to write them a letter about it. Bureaucrats seem to need that kind of thing before they'll believe anything.

Would those hearing protectors that shooters use be an option?

Having a school, let alone a public school, be politically correct in every way for autistic children is not likely to happen. That would require a plethora of changes to help with sensitivity issues, and a school can only go so far within reason to accommodate disability reasonably. Asking the school (or, threatening) to change their ways might not go over so well, it might be better to change his ways with the above suggestion of hearing protection.

I am frightened of hand dryers and try to avoid using them at all costs. The noise is horrible and I have to cover my ears. If they don't have paper towels, I go into a stall and use toilet paper.

Hand dryers don't work very well. I like paper towels better. However, in regards to the OP, I think letting him use another bathroom is reasonable, unless it's very far away but I think removing the hand dryer is unreasonable. He's going to be faced with them all his life. Most places have one. I've never heard of one gong off on it's own though.

I'd suggest they let him use a different bathroom and then start using the regular bathroom maybe once a day at first then twice, etc until he's only going to that bathroom. I used to have lots of strange fears and while they are terrifying to get over, I did eventually get over them. It was desensitization that worked for me.

How does he handle it when he has to go and ya'll are out in public and there is a hand dryer there?

On a side note, once when I had two jobs (hanging duct during the day and working at a convenience store in the evenings) I'd go directly to the second job from the first. I was also sweaty and nasty and would do a PTA bath in the sink and then wash my hair in the sink and use the hand dryer to blow dry my hair. It was nice because it was warmer than my regular crappy hair dryer at home. Have you taken him to a bathroom and let him push the button and maybe hold something underneath it to see that it can't hurt him? I know that is logical and these fears aren't logical at all, but it's a thought.

For my fears I just had to suck it up and either deal with them or try to avoid them as long as I could, which wasn't very long and then I'd end up losing the fear over time.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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