My wife and I went into Wal-Mart tonight. My wife has MS and uses her own scooter to navigate larger stores. While I was paying, she went to their Redbox to check out the rental DVDs. One of the store’s disability scooters was right in front of the Redbox. She made it to the Redbox, but with some difficulty.
On our way out, she decided to mention to the greeter that maybe they should move the store scooter from directly in front of the Redbox.
The response: “it’s always there. That’s where we park it”.
“All the time?”
“Yes, that’s where we keep it.”
“It doesn’t leave much room to use the Redbox.”
“Well, some people just sit in it when they use the Redbox.”
It was obvious she didn’t see any problem. We left - on our way out we saw a family using the Redbox. Their kids were playing on the store scooter.
So, basically Wal-Mart has placed their disability scooter where it actually causes problems for the disabled, so the able-bodied can use it as a toy. Right. Got it.
You’d better believe I will be contacting WM management tomorrow. It should be fun!
Yes, how ironic. It’s just an example of the pure thoughtlessness that those with disabilities encounter routinely. It’s like going into the business that has a wheelchair ramp to get inside the front doors, only to find a set of stairs inside the buildings. Stairs with no ramp. Or the “handicap accessible” bathroom which has a stall door too narrow for a chair to fit through. I know it’s not the exact same thing as your situation, but it just brings these things immediately to my mind. Thoughtlessness. Have a thoroughly good time with your talks with the WM management!!
How many do they have, and where do they keep the other ones?
Shouldn’t they have them on the charger/plugged in/however they keep them charged up, whenever they’re not in use? Regardless of the fact that it was obstructing someone’s way, if they have more than one of the things, they should keep them all in the same place so they can tell quickly if one goes missing, and so they can make sure they are all charged up for use. Bad management in addition to the ADA violation.
Our front doors are handicapped accessible, but I admit I didn’t realize how much our bathrooms are not until I some poor woman struggling in her wheelchair to get out. There are two doors. The first one opens into a little lounge, and the second into the bathroom itself, and so getting in isn’t too bad but getting out…you basically have to pull it open, wheeling yourself backwards, and then try to get through the door without it shutting on you. Now we don’t normally have anyone with a wheelchair in our building (she was from outside) but I imagine if we did, they’d have to change it.
Our college is like that- and I have complained to the maintainers multiple times over the years. We have automatic door openers for the two sets of double doors leading into the building (one button opens both). BUT the elevator and handicapped accessible bathroom (which does have an automatic door opener) is behind a third set of doors with no automatic button. :smack:
The building my last job was in has exactly 2 doors that are handicapped accessible, the ground floor mens room, and the ground floor womens room. I will grant that they have a ramp, but they have the typical double doored vestibule into the lobby. Which didn’t have an auto open. No other doors in the building are auto open. I could just manage to struggle in on crutches [why the hell do glass doors have to be so fracking HEAVY!] but had to force the company to let me telecommute because walking was causing me 1 or more weeks a month of flares in my feet and the building was not wheelchair accessible unless I had someone with me any time I needed to go through any door.:rolleyes:
Stop complaining to maintenance, they obviously have no interest in doing the job. Contact the schools legal department and tell them that they have the issue corrected in every instance of where it occurs on campus or you go to the government and report it. Either maintenance takes it out of their budget and gets the job done or they get fines until it gets done on the maintenance budget.
That sounds like a typical WalMartian response to me. I was taking one of their little carts into the store to use, and it tipped over going over a curb outside, and brought me down with it. As a healthy middle-aged woman, I bruised both of my legs quite badly - I can easily see someone more fragile than I am breaking both legs. I went in to customer service to tell them how easily the small carts tip, and how it hurt me, and their response was basically, “So?”
I used to manage a small town museum that was housed in a very old school building. In order to qulaify for certain types of funding we had to upgrade to wheelchair accesability.
This ran into a conflict as the building’s historic status severely limited what we could do in modifying its archetecture. We were able to fashion a ramp on the front stairs, but the small men’s room had no room available for modification for wheel chair access.
We did however have room in the ladies’ room to modify one of the stalls.
We changed the sign so that it read Ladies and Wheelchair.
It was honestly the best we could do. Our staff would always be happy to check that"the coast was clear" if a male in a wheel chair wanted to use it, and to stand gaurd while he did.
Still, a few people raised a stink (pun not intended) over this comprimise…
women did not like men using their washroom, males in wheel chairs felt put out by being relgated to the ladies, etc.
A building across from my office is one of the entrances to the Path, and underground network you can use to go all over the heart of downtown Toronto, without setting foot outside. On one viciously cold day, the security desk in that building’s lobby locked the automatic disabled access door to keep the heat in. Push the button on the door, nothing would happen. You’d look inside and the chief of security would point at the revolving doors.
We had a co-worker who was partially paralyzed due to a series of severe strokes. He can stand on two feet, and shuffle around (I wouldn’t call it “walking”) but he could not use stairs, and could not use revolving doors. So I went over to the chief of security to ask about the doors. “If someone’s bringing in a disabled person, we’ll open the door.” I asked “How will you know if the person is disabled?” the security chief responded with:
:rolleyes: “Have a good day.” and walked off.
Of course when it came time to go home for the day, my co-worker stood and knocked on the door. They pointed at the revolving doors. He kept knocking. They kept pointing, until finally they came out long enough to tell him to get away from the doors or they’d call the police. When he tried to protest that he needed to go in the disabled access door, they just got snarky and said “Use the revolving doors!”
The following day, one of our managers called the building owners all the way in Germany, and it got sorted out really quickly. They may not lock that door during regular hours anymore.
ETA: Oh, BTW. It turns out that one of the reasons they were extra douchey to him was because they thought he was drunk due to the paralyzed half of his face.
