How inclusive is China’s toilet revolution? The role of policy in shaping accessible toiletscapes

Conversations around urination, defecation, menstruation, even toilets themselves, have long been taboo in China, but this changed dramatically in 2015 with the launch of a ‘toilet revolution’. From where to go, to how to go, what was traditionally considered nobody’s business suddenly became everyone’s business. Since then, facilities have been built or renovated in their thousands, all to improve health, stimulate economic productivity and reinforce China’s image as a modern, civilized nation. Toilets for disabled people, in contrast, appear to have been overlooked despite increasing commitments to more accessible environments. Through critical analysis of policy and other guiding documents, this research provides the first academic assessment of the inclusivity of China’s public ‘toiletscape’. We explore how governments locate and imagine disabled people through the landscape of accessible toilet policy and find that, while China now offers more options for disabled people through ‘barrier-free facilities’, accessible toilets are often overlooked as mandatory requirements. Even when facilities are considered, disabled people are only considered one of many potential users. We reveal how ableism and developmentalism can distort even well-meaning attempts at inclusion and make recommendations so that disabled people in China and elsewhere can benefit from ‘toilet revolutions’ of their own.