Multipurpose toilets are meant to be convenient for the elderly, parents with young infants and toddlers, wheelchair users, ostomates, and other people with special needs, and they are fitted with equipment and facilities designed for such usage.

Nakajima Ryoko is a "barrier-free" activist, social media influencer and member of the dynamic wheelchair-riding girls unit Beyond Girls (whom we had the pleasure of interviewing last year). Nakajima regularly uses multipurpose toilets, but as she recently revealed on her Twitter account, she had a bad experience over the weekend which left her frustrated and indignant over an inconsiderate user's behavior:

The bed, designed for a parent to change an infant or toddler's diapers or for an adult to lie on while a caregiver changes their clothes or provides other assistance, was in the fully extended position...

This kind soul came to Nakajima's aid...

Here is a stock photo of the same multipurpose bed in its fully extended position. As you can imagine, it is designed to be operated by caregivers. It is very difficult for a wheelchair user to lift it up and return it to the folded position:

Nakajima made it a point to use her platform on social media to raise awareness of the need for good manners when it comes to using multipurpose bathrooms.

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Reactions on Social Media

At the time of writing, her tweet has over 3,800 likes and 3,500 retweets. Most of the people who reacted with comments joined Nakajima in denouncing the ill-mannered user:

• People should have a minimum of good manners.
• It just goes without saying that you should leave things the way you found them!
• I came across a user with bad manners like that once, and she told me she didn't know how to put the bed back. Really? The instructions were right there, printed on a sticker on the bed...

Others pointed out that multipurpose toilets aren't always used as intended:

• Maybe the bed was used by someone who didn't have a disability.
• Maybe someone used the multipurpose toilet for some other kind of activity...

And yet others put the blame on the toilet designers:

• This is a design error, plain and simple. They didn't have the interests of wheelchair users in mind when they designed that one.

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Multipurpose toilets can be used by everyone, so it is possible that a user who didn't care about the people who need them most left the bed that way. But we should remember that the reason multipurpose toilets are spacious is because there are people who need that space.