RADAR key: what it is, who can use it and where to buy one

Who can use a RADAR key

Disability Rights UK sells the key only to people who need to use the toilet facilities because of their disability or health condition (Disability Rights UK, Radar Key). Two more conditions apply when you buy it:

• Buying it VAT free is a declaration. By buying the key without VAT, you declare that you are eligible to claim VAT relief and that the key is for your domestic and personal use only (Disability Rights UK, Radar Key).
• Organisations pay VAT. The key is only VAT free for individuals; an organisation such as a care home buying on someone’s behalf pays VAT (Disability Rights UK, Radar Key).

The key opens the door; whether a place has to provide an accessible toilet at all is a different question. For new buildings in England, the toilet rules are in disabled toilet dimensions in the UK, and for the duty of shops and services to make reasonable adjustments, see Equality Act reasonable adjustments.

Buying a RADAR key without VAT

GOV.UK explains the general rule: if you are disabled or have a long-term illness, you are not charged VAT on products designed or adapted for your own personal or domestic use, and both the product and your disability have to qualify (GOV.UK, VAT relief for disabled people). For VAT purposes, you are disabled or have a long-term illness if:

• you have a physical or mental impairment that affects your ability to carry out everyday activities, for example blindness;
• you have a condition that is treated as chronic sickness, like diabetes;
• you are terminally ill (GOV.UK, VAT relief for disabled people).

You do not qualify if you are elderly but not disabled, or if you are temporarily disabled. You need to confirm in writing that you meet the conditions, and your supplier may give you a form for this (GOV.UK, VAT relief for disabled people). At the Disability Rights UK shop, choosing the price without VAT is that declaration (Disability Rights UK, Radar Key).

Finding a toilet you can use in Braillito Maps

A RADAR key opens the door, but it does not tell you which café, shop or station on your way has a toilet that works for you. Braillito Maps is a community map that answers ten questions about each place: step-free entrance or ramp, wide doorway, accessible toilet, accessible parking, tactile paving, braille signage, braille menu, audible signals, guide dogs welcome and a quiet environment.

Accessible toilet is one of the ten. It is a single yes-or-no question: it does not say whether the door has an NKS lock, so it is worth carrying the key anyway. Each question is answered yes or no, or stays without data until someone knows, and the score of a place is the number of yes answers out of ten, always shown with its number, never by colour alone.

When you find a toilet that works for you, add the place and mark accessible toilet yes, so the next person finds it already checked. If what a place says is wrong, it can be reported. Meet Braillito Maps.

More accessibility guides

• Disabled toilet dimensions (UK): the Doc M toilet under Approved Document M: room size, where the WC goes, the rails, fitting heights, ambulant and enlarged cubicles, and Doc M packs.
• Changing Places toilets: what they are, the hoist and the changing bench, which buildings in England must have one since 2021, and how to find one.
• Equality Act reasonable adjustments: the three requirements of section 20, why the duty is anticipatory, who pays, and what a shop, restaurant or service can change in its building.
• Blue Badge parking rules: where a Blue Badge lets you park in England: yellow lines for up to 3 hours, the parking clock, disabled bays, car parks and what counts as misuse.
• Approved Document M (Part M): Part M of the Building Regulations in England, volume by volume: M4(1), M4(2) and M4(3) homes, and ramps, doors, lifts and toilets in other buildings.
• Accessible travel: your rights on flights in the US and the EU, accessible hotel rooms, and what to ask before you book.
• All accessibility guides