# Non-disabled people hitting the disabled door opener **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 8, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598 "2008-05-08T19:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/61 "2012-01-17T16:07:00Z")
If the buttons & doors are that flimsy, then it seems to me the real problem isn’t the button pushers; it’s the poor design of the doors and buttons. ---
**Author:** ![YoDoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e68b1a/32.png) [@YoDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoDoc)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/62 "2012-01-17T16:13:04Z")
If you don’t need it, don’t use it. Only you know, and only you will know. Some folks got no sense of dignity about doing for themselves. Nothing special, nothing uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/63 "2012-01-17T16:14:44Z")
Does it count as legitimate usage if you are pushing someone in a wheelchair? When we were going to the doctor’s office with such a device and I DIDN’T use it, my dear bride asked me why. I replied, “Because I am not handicapped.” She retorted, “Well, you idiot, I am!” For what it is worth, I also didn’t use the handicap parking spaces just because we had the plates. I mean, I was pushing her in a freaking wheelchair. I needed the exercise. heh ☹ ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/64 "2012-01-17T16:30:08Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > The disabled door is often hard to pull. And, seriously, who’s it hurting if I push that button? Ditto. There is one casino here (The M Resort) that has an “automatic” door where you have the option to press if you want it to open. However, if you don’t press it, you really, really have to push that door hard to get it to move! Don’t quite know why that door is otherwise so hard to open, but whoever built it didn’t even try to open it without pushing the button. Otherwise, I almost never hit the button and just open those kinds of doors. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/65 "2012-01-17T17:24:34Z")
> [@quietob](#): > > Yes, it absolutely does cause the buttons and the door itself to break down more often. Someone’s going to have to come up with a _reliable_ cite that normal usage of pushing the button damages it, or that using the button damages the door more than manually opening it, before I’m going to believe it. > [@](#): > > I have to struggle with broken doors all the time and when I ask the manager or someone about it they tell me it’s because kids are pounding on the button so much it’s broken. I don’t doubt some manager told you that. Maybe there really are kids “pounding on the button”, but that isn’t what I would categorize as normal usage of pushing the button. Or maybe he just tells you that because it’s easier to pass the blame when people complain than it is to fix the button. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/66 "2012-01-17T19:59:36Z")
> [@quietob](#): > > it is offensive to people in wheelchairs to have to see one person after another who doesn’t need to push the button, pushing the button. Seriously? People in wheelchairs are offended when they see a non-disabled person use technology developed for the disabled. That’s a bit over the top don’t you think? It’s a door. It’s not a door for the exclusive use by the handicapped. Do you think that deaf people get angry when they see the hearing using the closed captioning features on their television sets? Or do you also get offended when non-handicapped people use the elevator just to go one or two floors? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/67 "2012-01-17T20:15:19Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Seriously? People in wheelchairs are offended when they see a non-disabled person use technology developed for the disabled. That’s a bit over the top don’t you think? It’s a door. It’s not a door for the exclusive use by the handicapped. Do you think that deaf people get angry when they see the hearing using the closed captioning features on their television sets? Or do you also get offended when non-handicapped people use the elevator just to go one or two floors? Another handicapped guy chiming in here. I definitely don’t get offended at such trivial things. I don’t even notice them. Personally, I have never pushed those buttons, simply because they _take so damn long to open the door!_ I’m much too impatient to sit there and wait for that damn mechanical motor to open the door, so I just swing it open myself and push myself through. I actually _have_ pushed the “open door” button before (I know I just said never) just to try it out and was instantly annoyed at the slow-motion action of the system and just grabbed the door and hurried up the process myself. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/68 "2012-01-17T21:31:54Z")
I have heard before that those door openers are finicky and break down frequently from overuse. Because of this, I’ve heard that people who need them would prefer that people who don’t need them stop pushing the buttons, because that makes them break that much quicker. I don’t know whether this is true or not (I saw it in a comment on another site), but I quit using the buttons for that reason. Also, they are really fucking slow, as **Ambivalid** said above. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/69 "2012-01-17T21:33:22Z")
Having spent the better part of three years in severe lower-back pain due to a slipped disk, I can tell you that pulling and pushing on heavy doors greatly increased my agony. But if you saw me coming and hitting the button, I’m sure you’d have thought “Fat, lazy SOB can’t even open a door?!?” In the building where I now work, there are a double set of doors surrounding a 10X14 cubicle where the security badges have to be swiped. The doors are made to close very quickly, with the result that the air in there gets horribly stale and stinky. I dislike walking through it, and when I leave in the evening I always push both sets of handicapped buttons, in order to open the doors and air out the place for a few moments. Curse my name ye haters! ! ! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/70 "2012-01-18T01:19:09Z")
The doors at my office seem to have some sort of “power assist”. If you open it manually, the power opener takes over, opens it all the way open, and holds it open for an appropriate period of time before swinging shut. So, I don’t have a problem hitting the button when I have my briefcase in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. The power opener is in use whether you hit the button or pull the handle. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/71 "2012-01-18T01:33:17Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > I have heard before that those door openers are finicky and break down frequently from overuse. Because of this, I’ve heard that people who need them would prefer that people who don’t need them stop pushing the buttons, because that makes them break that much quicker. I don’t know whether this is true or not (I saw it in a comment on another site), but I quit using the buttons for that reason. Also, they are really fucking slow, as **Ambivalid** said above. I’ve heard that, but I’ve also heard that pushing on the door (which, as BrotherCadfael points out, causes the door opening mechanism to kick in) without pushing the button strains the mechanism and makes it wear out sooner. Absent an actual expert in automatic doors, I don’t know what to think. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/72 "2012-01-18T01:41:06Z")
> [@quietob](#): > > I know these posts are years old but I just came across this site and since I actually _am_ in a wheelchair, I definitely have something to say about able-bodied persons hitting the button on automatic doors. Yes, it absolutely does cause the buttons and the door itself to break down more often. I have to struggle with broken doors all the time and when I ask the manager or someone about it they tell me it’s because kids are pounding on the button so much it’s broken. As well, when I have a long wait by a door for the wheelchair bus, it’s freezing cold in the winter when almost everyone pushes the button because the door stays open a long time. As for the door being difficult to open and therefore this is an excuse for just pushing the button-- it’s hard to pull because it’s a mechanized door. It would take less time and effort to just grab the other door. It’s okay if you have packages or a baby stroller or a bad shoulder, otherwise it is offensive to people in wheelchairs to have to see one person after another who doesn’t need to push the button, pushing the button. Heaven forbid there were no automatic door openers. What would you able-bodied people do-- wait for someone in a wheelchair to come along and rescue you from the arduous task of opening the door by opening it for you?:rolleyes: Just because someone isn’t in a wheelchair, and doesn’t have \*\*visually apparent \*\*handicaps does not mean that they don’t have a legitimate right to use the button. I am such a person. Yes, I can walk (well and quickly if the ground is flat and even, with considerable more trouble in narrow spaces and rough terrain) I have a muscle condition that makes balancing a bit treacherous at times, and makes opening heavy office doors extremely painful. If the building has normal doors, no problem, but if it’s got a set of doors that look (or have the weight of) like doors from the set of King Kong, I’m using the damned button. Don’t be so judgmental. You don’t know from looking if someone needs the button or doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![quietob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a88e4f/32.png) [@quietob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quietob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/73 "2012-01-18T02:02:25Z")
I’m new here-- can’t get the quote thing to work right. ZenBeam: I see this all the time. Kids don’t just push the buttons, they hit them repeatedly with their fists even after the door starts opening. Parents say, “Wanna push the button?” Find something else for your child to break. elbows: As for not being able to tell if someone has a hidden problem and needs to push the button-- you’re right. But there must be one hell of an an epidemic of people with sore arms because so many people push these buttons when they have no parcels, strollers or kids in tow. Ambivalid: As for not being offended by the non-disabled pushing the buttons and as well as for not using them at all, this is the exception. I have discussed this issue with lots of other people in wheelchairs and they all feel exactly the same way as I do. Omar Little: To say I am offended by non-disabled people pushing the buttons is perhaps not the right way to explain it. It’s a sense of acute awareness that people take their able-bodied status for granted. In my head I’m saying, “Be grateful you’re not in a wheelchair and stop acting like you are because someday you might be and then, and only then, will you finally get it.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/74 "2012-01-18T02:23:27Z")
I don’t have any issue with people using the disabled door opener. Heck, many building have electric eye doors anyway for everybody. It’s not like a handicapped parking space that you’d tie up by using it. People are in/out of a door in seconds. We installed one of these openers for our office’s outside door at work. Our biggest headache is remembering to turn it on in the morning. The opener switch has three positions. Off, Open with Key, and On. We set it to Open with a key when the office is closed. That way our disabled staff member can use his key and still have it open with the motor. When our receptionist opens the office at 7:45 AM she’s supposed to flip the switch to “On”. Chance are if she’s out sick her temp replacement doesn’t know this. I make a point to do it on those mornings. So the general public can use it. Then the receptionist is supposed to flip the switch to open with a key when the office closes at 5pm. Otherwise anyone that pushes the button can just walk right in. :eek: That’s a scary security issue. I always test it when I leave at 5:30pm and make sure the switch got set correctly. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/75 "2012-01-18T02:41:32Z")
> [@quietob](#): > > I’m new here-- can’t get the quote thing to work right. > > ZenBeam: I see this all the time. Kids don’t just push the buttons, they hit them repeatedly with their fists even after the door starts opening. Parents say, “Wanna push the button?” Find something else for your child to break. So you have no evidence that normal use of the buttons does any damage to the doors. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/76 "2012-01-18T02:43:06Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I’ve heard that, but I’ve also heard that pushing on the door (which, as BrotherCadfael points out, causes the door opening mechanism to kick in) without pushing the button strains the mechanism and makes it wear out sooner. **BrotherCadfael** is right. Using the door puts wear on the mechanism AND someone pulling on the door to open it causes wear on the mechanism. Disabled doors are fragile pieces of equipment and whether someone presses the button or not, the thing will break in a few years and need to be replaced anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/77 "2012-01-18T06:43:43Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > If the buttons & doors are that flimsy, then it seems to me the real problem isn’t the button pushers; it’s the poor design of the doors and buttons. I’m going to go with this one. Yes, kids shouldn’t be pounding on the buttons. But you have to figure that if something is exposed to the public, some portion of the public is going to abuse it, and not just kids. Back when video games were in every supermarket, I saw a lot of parents tell their kids to go play on the games, by which they meant that the kids should slap the buttons and waggle the joystick without putting money in. Not surprisingly, the machines broke down more often when they were subjected to such treatment. If something is built by the lowest bidder, and cost is the only consideration, then you’re going to get a shoddy product. That’s just the way things work. Low quality items will almost always break down sooner than items that are built better. That’s why people pay more for certain names and companies. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/78 "2012-01-18T10:55:57Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > The doors at my office seem to have some sort of “power assist”. If you open it manually, the power opener takes over, opens it all the way open, and holds it open for an appropriate period of time before swinging shut. So, I don’t have a problem hitting the button when I have my briefcase in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. The power opener is in use whether you hit the button or pull the handle. Ditto (at my workplace). Pulling on the door causes the auto-open actuator to cycle. I can’t see any difference between pushing the button and opening the door by hand. I’ve taken to using a different door in the winter to avoid the long heat-loss time due to the slow closing cycle (if that makes any sense). And a shout-out to my company is due here. When the auto-opener broke, they had maintenance on it within the hour. It was fixed before quitting time. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/79 "2012-01-18T11:37:36Z")
Non-disabled person here, and there are some doors of my acquaintance where I use the button because I know that the door has been made unwieldy to open manually, by adding the powered door opener. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598/80 "2012-01-18T13:45:13Z")
In my experience, if the door has a handicap door opener button, the door will require a considerable amount of force to open manually. Half of them seemingly proceed to trigger the automatic opening mechanism anyways once I push on the door, so pushing the button itself is less work and takes just as long. And as others have mentioned: It’s a big ol’ button. How am I supposed to resist pushing it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-disabled-people-hitting-the-disabled-door-opener/448598.md?page=5)