Mary B. Williams, Transportation Programs Coordinator
Civil Rights Program Manager
Federal Highway Administration

Mary, I'm not sure where a comment like this belongs, but here's my comment. I think it pertains to the section labeled PUBLIC TOILET FACILITIES (1107.5). I believe the law should require a generic (family) restroom in every public facility. By this I mean a rest room where an adult of one gender can help a disabled person of another gender with toileting functions. An example would be a mother and a teenage son who is cognitively and physically disabled are traveling together and the son needs to visit a toilet facility. He cannot use the facility without aid, the mother cannot go into a toilet facility for men. A generic or family bathroom would be the answer in this case.

Several years ago Mary I supervised the construction of the Wisconsin Tourist Information Center on I-94 in Kenosha County. We built this brand new modern building without a generic bathroom described above, and afterwards observed problems that disabled faced in scenarios as mentioned above. I managed to talk the state tourism employees at the time to put up a sign that indicated that their own employee restroom was available on special request for family needs. That sign lasted until there were staff changes and several months later the employee restroom was no longer available to the disabled. The lesson always makes me remember.

Bob Serak
Construction Services
Wisconsin Department of Transportation

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