Adult-Size Changing Tables Are Finally Happening

Chrissy Hood’s 21-year-old daughter Alaina, who has intellectual and developmental disabilities, outgrew a baby changing table a long time ago. Hood and her husband have resorted to changing her on the bathroom floor or in the family’s van, or even skipping outings because there was no accessible changing table.

Hood had never even seen an adult changing table in person when she started her advocacy work in 2020. Slowly, a few places — including the Nashville International Airport, the Adventure Science Center and the rec center in her town, Pulaski — started adding them of their own volition. The Walmart in Franklin became the first Walmart in the country to have an adult changing table too.

“To see every table, every time I walk in, it’s like Christmas Day,” she tells the Scene. “Someone cared enough about my child … about her needs and about her quality of life to do something.” 

Now, thanks to Hood’s work at the Tennessee General Assembly, adult changing tables will be popping up in all of the state’s travel stops and state parks. She and Alaina are on a quest to visit them all. 

It started with 2020 Disability Day on the Hill, where Hood talked with her representative, state Rep. Clay Doggett (R-Pulaski), about the need for adult changing tables in Tennessee. Hood says she found her voice with help from the Council on Developmental Disabilities, a Partners in Policymaking leadership course, and Changing Spaces, a national campaign for height-adjustable adult-size changing tables.

The focus of her advocacy is specific: powered, height-adjustable, adult-size changing tables in single-occupancy restrooms. Fixed-height tables aren’t as helpful — Alaina can’t climb up, and Hood can’t lift her. Wheelchair users would struggle to use it. Of course, these changing tables work for babies, too. 

“When I walk into a stall, there’s typically a hook on the back of that stall door for me to hang my purse,” Hood says. “Why do I need to hang my purse? Because I don’t want it on the dirty floor. Yet we’re having to change our loved ones. We’re having to change our veterans, our dads, our aunts, our uncles, our clients on the floor, and no one wants to lay down on a bathroom floor, a public restroom floor. Or we’re taking them to our vehicles and changing them in all types of weather elements. 

“It’s just not hygienic, it’s not safe, and you think about their dignity,” she continues. “Using the restroom is a basic human right.”

Something rare happened in Hood’s fight for more changing tables: unanimous, bipartisan support, and more money than she asked for. 

“Most people, when you talk to them about this, the light bulb goes off,” she says. “They’re just not aware that that is a need, because we don’t talk about going to the bathroom. That’s just a taboo subject.”

In the 2021 legislative session, Hood worked with Doggett and co-sponsor Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) on a mandate requiring adult-size changing tables in new buildings or those doing renovations over a certain dollar amount. It passed every committee unanimously but had a high fiscal note, which ultimately killed it. She worked with Doggett again in 2022 to introduce a grant program, offering a $5,000 incentive to get businesses to install the tables in places open to the public. It passed, and the fund was granted $1 million — double the $500,000 they asked for. 

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation offered to begin installing tables in state parks and rest stops, which was codified in a joint resolution. It became part of the Tennessee State Parks’ Access 2030 program, which also includes all-terrain wheelchairs, among other available modifications. 

This year, the grant amount was bumped to $10,000 because businesses may have to build a single-occupancy restroom, which is not a requirement in all new builds in Tennessee. There’s still money to be spent, and Hood hopes more businesses will take advantage of the grant program. 

Back in 2020, Doggett said he’d like to one day see Alaina cut the ribbon on a new adult changing table in the Cordell Hull State Office Building, where the state legislature does much of its business. Earlier this year, that vision came to fruition. 

“Tennessee is definitely leading the way in this,” Hood says. “We have had other states reach out and say, ‘Tell me how you did it. What did you do? What is your language? Tell me what your bill said.’ We have had extreme success and buy-in from the General Assembly and from our state and from our leaders within our state. And that’s been a huge blessing to many, many families and to families that travel through our state.”