Before I joined the Photosymbols team I was a customer myself for many years, using the library to make Easy Read as part of my work and research. Maybe that's why Tuesdays are now the highlight of my week. It is the day new images drop into the library, and I still get a buzz every time I see what is being added.

New set: Changing Places Toilets

This week’s update includes a new set of pictures on Changing Places Toilets. For more than a quarter of a million disabled people in the UK, many of them with learning disabilities, a standard accessible toilet is not enough. To have a clean, dignified space where personal care needs can be met, people may need additional equipment such as a hoist or changing bed, as well as extra space for carers to support them safely and comfortably.

Most of us take adequate toilet facilities for granted. But research shows that access to a Changing Places Toilet can be the deciding factor in whether a disabled person, and their family, friends or paid carers, visit a shopping centre, service station or visitor attraction. For many, it shapes much more fundamental decisions: how and when they can leave their home, whether they can work, and where they can travel. Like so many other accessibility measures, Changing Places Toilets open up the world.

The pictures we have added today show the standard features that a toilet must have to be categorised as a Changing Places Toilet. You might use them to:

• Create Easy Read information that explains what a Changing Places Toilet is and what facilities it includes.

• Campaign alongside learning disabled people for better toilet access in your local area.

• Describe the access measures in your own toilets when writing an Easy Read visitor guide.

Fresh, relevant and rooted in experience

Every picture in the Photosymbols library is designed to reflect the lives and experiences of people with learning disabilities. Often we work on pictures in themed sets like this one, or like last week’s deep dive into allergies. We take a topic and explore the different ways to help people make good Easy Read about it.

We develop ideas with our Expert Advisers and sometimes bring in subject specialists with lived experience. Every image is reviewed by our advisers, then tweaked and refined based on their feedback. Behind the scenes, our Creative Team also reviews older pictures to refresh anything that feels out of date. The library is never static; it is designed to stay useful and relevant.

Your ideas shape our pictures

Some of the most exciting additions to the library come directly from you. We add lots of images based on customer suggestions. If you would like to see something added to the library, just click the drop-down menu in the top right of the library and select “Suggest Picture.” We read every suggestion and use them to guide what we create next.

We would love to see your Easy Read about Changing Places Toilets, and to hear if any further pictures on this topic would be helpful. If you are a regular user of the picture library, check in with us every Tuesday to see what's new. You might find some inspiration for your next Easy Read project, and just like me, you might start looking forward to Tuesdays too.