No public restroom: Illinois's restroom access act and bathroom accessibility

Abstract

Restroom access acts (RAAs) provide persons with inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD) and other health conditions emergency access to a business's employee restroom. Despite the important role these laws can play in supporting a person's health and dignity, they remain understudied. This Article is the first to explore what if any role a RAA has in the lives of persons living with IBD.

We conducted a qualitative study to explore what persons with IBD living in Illinois know about the influential RAA in this state; their experiences finding and using restrooms in public; and what changes they would like to see in the provision of publicly available restrooms.

We interviewed nine participants living with IBD, primarily women living in the Chicago metropolitan area, and found that knowledge of the law was low. Participants also described harms resulting from limited access to public restrooms, including to their autonomy, freedom, and dignity. Our participants expressed skepticism of the law's ability to effectively improve bathroom accessibility yet also found hope in the law's existence.

This Article concludes by grounding these findings in legal precedent, disability law scholarship, and research on IBD. Our findings can be used to motivate future research on RAAs and influence future laws and policies to improve public health.