Proposal:Grab rails (take 2)
| Grab rails (take 2) | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Draft (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Pietervdvn |
| Tagging: | grab_rail:left; grab_rail:right; grab_rail:behind=yes/no |
| Applies to: | node,area |
| Definition: | A grab rail is a support to help persons with reduced mobility or a motoric disability. It helps them to transfer from their wheelchair onto the toilet, to stand in a shower, close a door, ... |
| Statistics: |
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| Draft started: | 2025-04-15 |
Proposal
Some wheelchair users are dependent on grab rails and similar supports to move from their wheelchair onto the toilet or other amenities such as showers. Some of them have a strong preference or need for this grab rail to be on a certain side of the toilet (e.g. someone who is paralyzed in their right arm will need the support to be on the left). Many toilet maps (e.g. the australian national toilet map) keep track of 'handedness' of a toilet. For others, certain types of support are harder then others, which is why detailed tagging is important for them - such as orientation of the grab rail.
Rationale
The current 'grab_rails' is insufficient
The current page on grab rails is very limited, never went through formal voting. It does not allow for enough detail for some usecases and does not allow room for more details. Furthermore, there are only ~150 current uses, the vast majority in Flanders, Belgium.
This template will replace that entire page (and deprecate the current tagging). The author is also in touch with the only data user of this tag, we will coordinate a mechanical edit to update those tags.
The main differences between this proposal and the current page are the addition of the left and right-suffixes and formalizing the prefixes to indicate where grab bars can be found.
This is micromapping / too detailed / to difficult for the average mapper
This is indeed very detailed mapping. However,
- the idea is to have support by editing software (esp. MapComplete), so that this detailed information can be easily added to OpenStreetMap without data errors, even by inexperienced users.
- there are other, difficult and highly detailed tags in OSM
- this level of detail is _really_ needed by wheelchair users
- this level of detail is often asked by professional users who would want to contribute this type of data, but now cant
Why not handrail?
The term handrail is associated mostly with steps, ramps and elevators. A grab rail indeed is a type of handrail. However, the latter term is widely used within the disability community and in all the official documentation such as the UK-building codex, the https://accessmobilitysolutions.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Changing-Places-design-specifications-2020-1_compressed.pdf Australian guide on installing a changing place], ...
A grab rail is the proper UK-english noun for this type of object. American English uses grab bar as common term; but as the OpenStreetMap project prefers British English we settled for grab_rail.
Tagging
Indicating where a grab rail is found
Many features can have grab rails, the most common ones are (sitting) toilets, sinks, showers, doors and urinals.
Often, those grab rails on different locations are located in the same area - namely a wheelchair-accessible toilet stall.
To distinguish this, we use various prefixes to indicate where the grab rails are located.
For example:
- A amenity=shower where all the showers have a grab rail, grab_rail=* would be added
- A amenity=toilets where all the toilets have a grab rail, grab_rail=* would be added
- A amenity=toilets where there is a wheelchair accessible stall which has a grab rail, toilets:wheelchair=grab_rail would be added
- In a wheelchair accessible stall with a sitting toilet, sink and shower, =*, toilets:wheelchair:sink:grab_rail:right=yes can be added. Another option is to map the various features as different points.
As the side on which the grab rail is found is important, we can distinguish between left, right and eventually behind. The behind options makes that using values left|right|both is not sufficient and a separate prefix is needed.
In general, the direction a user faces when using the amenity is used is used to determine what the left and right side is. For example:
- On a (sitting) toilet, the left side is the side on the left when sitting on the toilet
- For a urinal, the left side is the side when standing in front of it, facing the urinal
- For a (hinged) door, the direction is less clear. No prefix is used here
- For a shower, the left side is determined when facing the exit of the shower
Possible values
| Image | tag | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| grab_rail:<right/left>=yes | A wall-mounted grab rail in a horizontal position (or which has a horizontal part). | |
| grab_rail:<right/left>=no | There is no grab rail on this side |
In some cases, there are also grab rails behind the toilet. In this case, grab_rail:behind=* is used. The default assumption is grab_rail:behind=no
grab_rail=yes without indication of side is semantically unclear. There probably are grab rails on both sides, but this might not be the case.
Extra information
Extra information, such as grab_rail:foldable=yes/no, grab_rail:toilet_paper_holder=yes/no, grab_rail:material=yes/no, grab_rail:orientation=vertical/horizontal/diagonal can be added as well and are possible future improvements.
What about armrests?
Some toilets have armrests attached to the toilet. Those are not covered by this proposal. See the proposal here
Examples
This toilet would be tagged with grab_rail:right=yes and grab_rail:left=yes
Features/Pages affected
Rendering
Features/Pages affected
Key:toilets:wheelchair:grab rails
External discussions
Comments
Please comment on the discussion page.