Care Coordinator at Ningana Enterprises Tulika Sundernathan said accessibility to disabled bathrooms in the city is being led by private businesses, with more work needing to be done to inform locals and visitors alike of the location and accessibility of bathrooms in the city.

Her comments follow a report from The Area News into the public disabled bathrooms along Banna Avenue which are locked 24 hours a day and require the purchasing of a key - part of the Master Locksmiths Access Key (MLAK) system - to access.

The purchased key allows access to a number of locked bathrooms across the nation, but Mrs Sundernathan said a lack of signage and information about the system in Griffith can lead to difficult situations for disabled members of the community.

"Even the people who belong to this city, they themselves need to know," Mrs Sundernathan said.

"I'm quite sure 99 per cent of them don't know that yes, you can actually get a key for it.

"They get transport money in their [NDIS] funding to go around, but for them to be able to go around they need to be able to also to use the toilets and if they can't get in there then that's a problem."

A poll ran by The Area News indicated 68% of voters do not support Griffith City Council's decision to keep the public disabled bathrooms locked 24 hours a day.

EDITORIAL: Clever locks and keys let down by the basics

Mrs Sundernathan said events which are organised through Ningana will often be influenced by the level of disabled access and access to bathrooms available at the location.

"The only place a lot of times our clients access them are in Griffith Central, they are not really locked and you can go in," Mrs Sundernathan said.

"They [the bathrooms] need regular maintenance because you can always have accidents... these are some of the difficulties sometimes they face and that's why we end up choosing certain areas such as Central because its easy access to toilets.

"For people who came from out of town... they may not have that choice."

Privately owned businesses such as Griffith City Cinemas and Family Funland were particularly highlighted by Mrs Sundernathan as having a good level of disabled access, but noted publicly funded areas such as the Griffith Regional Aquatic Leisure Centre could have more done to improve disabled access.

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However, Mrs Sundernathan said Griffith City Council are making steps in the right direction to improve disabled access in the city and the Stage One Yambil Street upgrade is a good example of improving access.

"That's a fantastic one," Mrs Sundernathan said.

"I wish that was there in most of the crossings.

"In the community I think the roads and ramps can be much better, even when I take clients in a wheelchair, I think the ramps... they dip and it's quite the struggle.

"A bit more levelling in the ramps they make on the side of the roads could be good, to help them to cross."

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