Danish wheelchair user calls for more public toilets with ceiling lifts

Antoniett Vebel Pharao says Denmark needs more publicly accessible toilets with ceiling lifts after years of limiting her fluid intake and risking her health. DR reports that only a small number of such facilities are available nationwide.

The 37 year old welfare technology consultant from Aarhus has muscular dystrophy and has used a wheelchair since she was 16. She has sometimes held her urine for 12 hours and dehydrated herself to avoid needing a toilet.

That led to kidney stones and three operations, she says.

Pharao relies on accessible toilets with a ceiling lift. Other people with physical disabilities may need Changing Places toilets, which also have a shower and a changing bench. She says there are even fewer of those in Denmark.

Her own mapping has identified about 10 public accessible toilets in Denmark that are large enough and equipped with a ceiling lift, although she says there may be more. There is no central overview of where the facilities are located.

A suitable toilet needs a ceiling-mounted lift with a support bar holding what Pharao describes as a hammock with a hole in it for urination.

Senior consultant Stig Langvad of the Danish Disability Organisations confirms that there is no nationwide overview. His best estimate is that there are between five and 10 publicly accessible toilets with lifts that are open around the clock.

Pharao presented her proposal on Signe Moldes Roadshow, a programme where members of the public pitch ideas to three politicians. Her proposal was to make more toilets with ceiling lifts publicly available in every municipality.

Many care homes have toilets with lifts, but Pharao says she does not make a habit of breaking into them. She has an agreement with a care home in the small town of Spjald in Ringkøbing Skjern Municipality, where she can use the toilet when she is in western Jutland.

The lack of suitable toilets restricts her freedom whenever she leaves home. She drinks only small amounts when she has plans and chooses shots instead of draught beer when she goes out. She also avoided drinking before attending the roadshow because she did not know whether she would be able to use the toilet.

During the five years she studied at university in Aarhus, she could not use the toilet during the school day. When she later looked for work, her first and most important requirement was that she be able to urinate at the workplace.

I can have many skills and a university degree, but if I cannot urinate, I cannot think, she says.

Pharao presented her idea to Danmarksdemokraterne leader Inger Støjberg, Venstre group leader Morten Dahlin and Alternativet political leader Franciska Rosenkilde.

All three said they regarded the lack of accessible toilets as a serious problem. Rosenkilde called it a major failure that there are not more accessible toilets.

Støjberg said the problem affects individuals as well as society because it may prevent people with disabilities from entering the labour market.

Dahlin said he had not realised that the shortage was such a significant problem. He said he now understood the issue and agreed that action was needed.

Pharao is active in the Socialist People’s Party and stood in the 2025 municipal election in Aarhus, but was not elected. She says the issue should be resolved at national level because, in her view, municipal social services are financially starved.

Pharao says she has wished for the same thing every Christmas: a penis, which would make toilet visits somewhat easier. Since that wish has not come true, she is now asking for more accessible public toilets with ceiling lifts.

She left Signe Moldes Roadshow with the three politicians’ support for her proposal.