The Restroom Access Act (Ally’s Law)

If you have never heard of Ally’s Law or The Restroom Access Act, but you have IBD or IBS, then you need to read this brief post. To begin, this act aims to protect the rights of those with IBD/IBS and aid in providing us with a means to suffer less by forcing businesses that have no public restroom to provide a restroom to us in an emergency situation. It began in Illinois through an unfortunate experience had by a 14 year old girl with Crohn’s disease.

Only the following states have this law in place at this time:B Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Regardless, I still ordered a set of cards for myself with the hopes that if I should need to use them, someone might show me some compassion. I ordered my cards from ColitisNinja.com – a site that I highly recommend as a source of information and inspiration.

For some more reading, check out these two articles I was able to find on Ally’s Law:

• The Restroom Access Act:B Courageous Young Woman Advocates For Restroom Access For People With IBD
• How People With IBD Can Find A Toilet Anywhere: Find A Bathroom In Places Where There Are No Public Restrooms

To order your own card(s), check out these sites:

• ColitisNinja (Cards)
• CrohnsAndColitis (sign-up)
• DanSharpIBD.org (free cards)
• TheIBDLife.com (access)

And, if you’re feeling up to it, click here to sign a petition to get this law passed in my state. While there, if you find other petitions related to this law for other states, please post in the comments. If you start your own, share it with me and I will add it to my site.

Update: New York state has been playing around with this bill since January of 2017. There was a petition signed in a similar fashion to PA’s current petition that seems to have played a role in this. As of 6/19/17, the NY bill has been passed by the Senate and returned to assembly.

Advertisement