Design flaw
Acquiring a disability is usually a shock and a bloody steep learning curve. But of course there are perks as well, one of which is the RADAR key.

It should be simple enough. Knowing that accessible loos are often abused by members of the public who are not yet disabled, many of these facilities are kept locked with a universal RADAR lock, and disabled people are encouraged to carry a universal RADAR key.

Unfortunately the thought process of the person designing an accessible loo goes like this:
The door must have a door handle on it that is easy to grip and manipulate for someone who may have trouble using their hands.
The door must have a lock on the inside, ditto.
We can't just use the cheap bolts we used on the regular loos.
Hey, we already have a RADAR lock to put on this door.
It will be okay to just put the RADAR lock on this door, and then the door will lock and everyone's happy.

And misses the bits that go:
But the point of a RADAR lock is that it can be unlocked from the outside.
By any one of the 10.8 million disabled people in the UK.
Or any one of the not-yet-disabled people who have got their hands on a key for whatever reason.
All of whom will be expecting the door to be locked when it is vacant.
The RADAR lock has no "vacant/engaged" indicator.

It's therefore good etiquette to knock on the door and wait a moment before unlocking an accessible loo with a RADAR key, but, when you've got to go, you don't want to sit outside for a full ten minutes "just in case" the loo is occupied.

Generally speaking, if someone needs to use the accessible loo, it takes them more than a few seconds for them to stand up and rearrange their clothing and as a result, in the last four years I have seen a disturbing number of grannies and grandads with their pants around their ankles and, on occasion, mid-stream...

*shudder* Scarred for life, I tell you. But that's not the worst bit. The worst bit is that you still need to go, and there's generally only one accessible loo within distance, so once you've slammed the door in horror, you have to wait. Wait in bladder-busting discomfort to come face-to-face with the person whose most private business you have just disturbed. Not nice. Not pleasant. It doesn't help that the seat's pre-warmed either - not when you've actually seen the arse that did it.
( Batsgirl, Fri 29 May 2009, 9:55, 6 replies)

So..
tinyurl.com/youmeanthese ?
(lochii, Sat 30 May 2009, 1:18, closed)

yep, them's the ones.
For just 99p plus P&P you too could be ogling defecating grannies.
( Batsgirl, Sat 30 May 2009, 19:09, closed)

Fancy that.
All these years I've been labouring under the misapprehension that a Radar Key was some sort of electronic device. It never occurred to me that it was an ordinary metal key.
(richardm, Wed 3 Jun 2009, 16:22, closed)

it's acronym-tastic:
Royal Association for Disability And Rehabilitation.

Although it would be fun to have some sort of proximity device that made ramps slide out and doors open and hand-rails appear.
( Batsgirl, Thu 4 Jun 2009, 11:18, closed)

Thanks
for the warning.

Having been made disabled 8 years ago I always intended to get one of these but never ever got around to it.

Once again this afternoon having been to the beach with the dogs early evening, the marvellous national trust people had buggered off home locking the toilets behind them. Once again my mantra "must remember to get a radar key" enters my thick skull. Once again I forget until 00.15 and I read your post. I've just ordered one.

You've saved me from m any a painful 30 minute car ride home.
(MadBouncyDog Barking at the moon since, Sun 31 May 2009, 0:16, closed)

hurrah!
Actually, they do have another use as well.

You know how shops that don't/can't have level access sometimes get around it by having a doorbell at wheelchair height, the idea being that we ring the bell and the shop assistant will come to the door and either bring a ramp so we can get in, or bring goods out to us...? And you know how a lot of the time that doorbell doesn't have any batteries in it, because the shop assistants have got annoyed with it being rung by kids?

Well, it seems that now there's these things that are like a doorbell, but they only work if you put a RADAR key in them. I've only seen it on two or three buildings so far, all of which were pharmacies and reasonably accessible anyway, but I thought it seemed like quite a good idea.
( Batsgirl, Sun 31 May 2009, 11:12, closed)