Update the Codes

[Guest guest]

I originally wrote and posted this at my own group but thought people

might find it interesting here as well.

My own views about ADA access codes are that they need to be

seriously updated.

I think all of the original codes were based on one skinny person in

a compact sports type manual chair.

All original access codes do not allow for the space that an average

powerchair with footrests needs to manuever in. Recliner chairs,

scooters, and chairs with ventilator equipment on the back, can't fit

to the code's measusrments. No allowance for people who can't use

their arms to open doors, reach kitchen cupboards, swing a door open

then swing it shut to manuver around behind it, etc. There's no

space allowance for a service dog to stay beside a powerchair user

either.

The codes cover how big doorways should, the way a door goes in or

out but the codes don't have any mention of planning the layout in a

way that's manuverable in a wheelchair.

The so called 'designated handicapped' apartment I had {before the place

I live now} left no space for anything in the master bedroom except

my full size bed and me. There was no where to manuever a hoyer

lift. One bathroom door opened to literally two inches from the

hanging light for the dining area so people walking out of the

bathroom would hit their head on the lamp, and I could never put the

dining table where it was supposed to go and still get in and out of

the bathroom. The roll in shower stall was too shallow and the water

would spray right out into the room.

Access monitors advised me to " buy a longer shower curtain and keep

it closed " . Nobody sells shower curtains that long and I could't

keep the curtain closed while I'm dependent on a PCA to shower. I was

told to get smaller furniture when a table as big as a dinner plate

would still be in the way. The bedroom space codes were for twin

size or a hospital bed.

Am I suppossed to buy dollhouse furniture? Are people with

disabilities expected to sleep single throughout their lives?

Newly renovated expensive Boston hospital exam rooms took the exam

tables and fixed them three feet of space on all sides so there's no

room for anyone to fit beside my chair for transfering. No room to

turn oround, get the door shut, etc. Other hospital rooms leave no

space to get your wheelchair around the room without rolling the bed

out of the way or shoving it into your semi private roommate's bed.

And forget privacy curtains with space to fit around your chair.

Some codes are better than not having any codes but they need to be

more realistic to the needs and mainstream lifestyles of a majority

of wheelchair users. Modern day wheelchairs are larger, modern

medicine is keeping us alive longer with vents, reclined seating,

oxygen tanks, etc, and more care is happening in our homes instead of

being relagated to institutions as we age. It's not just young fit

parapalegics who need access anymore.

We Need Codes That Reflect the Rest of Us.