Yeah, the whole “not using the handicapped bathroom stall” is a ridiculous issue. When you design a building, building codes require a certain number of toilets for the expected occupancy. The handicapped stall counts as one of the toilets. So not only is it OK to use it, it’s expected…
Maybe the place I worked used super-cheap buttons or something, but I just want to point out that they can and do break down.
Furthermore, maybe I worked in a place with inordinately hostile co-workers, but I also witnessed people frequently smacking or punching the buttons when they used them.
I don’t care if able-bodied people use the buttons, I just ask that you press them gently and don’t cause any undo wear and tear. Also, you only need to press it once. Repeated tap-tap-taps won’t make it open any faster. If you need to press it more than once, or it seems to only respond to a good swift smack, then it’s on its way to being broken and you probably should avoid using it so you don’t hasten its break down and people who need it can use it while they can (because goodness knows when maintenance will get around to fixing it, but then again maybe that was just my building). Does that make sense?
I’m not buying this logic. It would also imply not using handicapped toilet stalls, because toilet stalls do break down, and four times sooner than if no able-bodied people used it.
Look, it’s real simple. If accessibility features fail because able-bodied people use them, it is not the fault of the able-bodied people, it is the fault of the designers and engineers who installed it. Don’t yell at (editorial) me, let’s both yell at them.
Pressing too hard, or too many times? Please. That’s got to be in design tolerances 101.
Right back to the OP.
I’d probably push the button and wait (unless it’s very clear that the button only applies to one pair of doors). This is because I have come across such automatic doors, that are prone to damage by manual use. I’d rather wait three seconds than the small risk of fucking up a disabled entrance.
I totally agree with you, but then I started thinking about handicapped parking spaces, and it seems like the same logic should apply there (but obviously doesn’t). If all the spaces in the lot are full (except the handicapped ones), why do able-bodied people have to circle the lot in case a handicapped driver comes?
The able-bodied person is expected to circle the parking lot waiting for another spot to open because they can park where ever they want. However, a handicapped person often times depends on having those spaces open so they can have room to load/unload a wheelchair. Wheelchairs often don’t fit easily between cars in regular spots, and sometimes even more room is needed for ramps or to operate lifts. They don’t have the luxury of being able to use the first spot that opens up.
I’m with you on the strollers. I never noticed how many things around me would be a pain in the ass in a wheelchair until I had to try to negotiate a baby stroller through them, over them, and around them. (Are post offices in small towns exempt from ADA-accessibility laws?) Those handicapped-access buttons are a big help.
Not to mention the fact that waiting for a handicapped bathroom stall open up so you can go pee will take a couple of minutes at most.
Waiting for the parking spot to open up on a Saturday afternoon at the mall, on the other hand, can take hours.
The only time I see people do is at one of the malls. They disabled the mechanism that makes the doors open when people approach and because they didn’t remove it from the door as well, the door is really hard to open… and there’s also no handle or bar across the door to push it open! I’ve got a nice scar on my wrist from putting my hand through a glass door that I’d pushed on, so it upsets me to see little kids trying to push the damn door open. Me, I go to the one door that does have a handle still (wasn’t ever an auto door) but most people don’t, so they either push the button or try to force the door open by pushing on the frame.
Remember, too, that not all physical limitations are obvious to passersby. I have neck injuries, and resulting limited flexibility and strength in my upper body makes opening many conventional doors uncomfortable, especially those that have been made resistent to opening in the name of “security.” (yes, I’ve faced those, and they’re horrible!). I have trouble getting over the whole “handicapped doors are for handicapped people” thing, but on a day when the pain’s bad enough, I’ll do it. In the absence of a neck brace or other outward signals, I’m sure other people don’t understand why.
We have handicap-access doors on the post offices here, and they are no problem whatsoever to open manually. They don’t require waiting or wrestling.
Personally, I only use the buttons when my hands are full–at which times I’m very happy the button is positioned low so I can hit it with my hip–but my 12-year-old son uses the button every time.
The button is there so that handicapped people can use it, not so that the rest of us can’t use it. Telling people not to use the button is like telling them not to walk up the wheelchair ramp or telling me to turn off the closed captioning on my TV.
Using the wheelchair ramp or the closed captioning on your TV does not wear down a mechanism. Using the mechanical door opener does.
Yes, Ellis Dee, you can improve the rate of breakdown. But you can’t change the laws of physics, in that more use = sooner breakdown.
Back when I attended a community college they installed electric openers on all the doors on the outside of the building and in the hallways. I used them constantly. They opened quickly and the buttons were far enough away that you could push them and the door would be open by the time you reached it. They were great. Someone did give me crap about it once, but t’hell with them. Heh… I was far from the only able-bodied person to use those things.
If discouraging able-bodied people from using those doors is a priority, the answer is simple - make them open slowly. If I have to stand in front of the door waiting for it to open I will never bother with the electric mechanism - I’ll just pull/push the door open myself. I imagine that would be the case for almost all able-bodied people.
At my workplace, there are some doorways that have just one door and a handicapped button, but which also open like non-mechanized doors. I never push the button because that would slow me down too much. It annoys me when I’m with able-bodied colleagues who insist on pushing the button and waiting.
In the hospital toilet, I always use the automated switch!!
I always try to open doors on my own. I prefer not to use openers, because I think it’s good exercise and practice for when I run into a situation where there isn’t an opener (or it’s broken). I’m lucky in that I’m strong and able enough to be able to open a door while I’m sitting in a wheelchair. I know there are other people in wheelchairs that are not in the physical condition to open the door, and I really have no idea what they do if they aren’t able to get a door open. I’ll often get comments asking, “Is the opener broken?” I then explain that I prefer to open the door on my own. I guess it is good though that people are concerned about whether or not the opener is functioning. People hold doors for me a lot, and I do the same if someone is entering, exiting, at a door I’m holding.
What would I think of someone able using an opener? If their hands aren’t full, I might wonder if they really needed it, but I’ve never said anything. I always give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to being handicapped. I’ve had times when people have insulted me, or asked for an explanation like I owe it to them, because I don’t “look handicapped” if I’m not sitting in my wheelchair.
As for some other subjects that have come up: elevators and bathrooms. First elevators: I’m on a campus, and most buildings aren’t taller than three floors. When I’m in a hurry to get to class, it is annoying to have to wait for the elevator. Benefit of the doubt comes into play here as well, but it is still annoying to have to wait. I’ve come to elevators before with people already waiting. They’ll be going down when I need to go up. I’ll push the “up” button, but the “down” takes priority. Once in a while I’ll get people that get embarassed and offer to let me go up first (too bad the elevator doesn’t work that way) or they say they’ll catch the next one.
Bathrooms: I understand that if someone’s got to go, they’ve got to go. If there are any other stalls, and there isn’t shit smeared all over the place, use the other stall. If you are going to be a while, but can hold it, then hold it. Paralysis can make those things difficult for me. I’ve been in a bathroom before with five stalls. When I went into the bathroom, two were occupied. One was the handicapped stall. I sat and waited, and waited, and waited. People kept walking in and out, using the other stalls, but the guy in the handicapped stall was taking his time. I didn’t know if it was someone who was handicapped, so I sat and waited politely. I kept looking at the ground while I was waiting, and a guy came up and patted me on the shoulder. He asked how I was doing, and if I needed some help. I told him I was OK. I think he figured it out, because he went up and knocked (banged?) on the stall door, and said, “There’s a guy in a wheelchair out here waiting for this stall.” The guy finished up and came walking out.
Another time, at a baseball game I was second in line. The next stall to open up was the handicapped stall. The guy in front of me went in. At the time, I didn’t realize it was the only handicapped stall. Once I realized I couldn’t get into any of the other stalls, I sat and waited while I let others keep passing me for the one stall out of ten (eleven, twelve?) would become vacant.
These are just a few stories, but think about things like this happening every. single. day. It can add up. So can you use the opener, the elevator, the handicapped stall? Sure. I suppose you have a “right” to it, just as anyone else. The question is, do you have a need to use those things? If not, use some common courtesy. I am grateful that I have the ability to open doors. It isn’t something I would have thought of before I got hurt, but now I realize it every day. If you can open the door (hands aren’t full, don’t have back problems, whatever) then I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t open the door on your own.
I am minorly claustrophobic, so I hate the thin stalls created when installing the handicapped stall.
Also, if I take a serious dump, I feel the need to undress more fully, less I pee over the top of the seat and wet my pants and underwear. Too many men pee into the toilets and miss. I hate walking away with other men’s bodily fluids on my clothes!! Contrary to the rumors!!
I only use the buttons at work when my hands are full, which is rather often.
I agree with you totally. I had to maneuver my 83-year-old mother around ramps/doors, etc.
On a separate personal note, I lost touch 30+ years ago with an ex-army Nam vet last-named with your sig from Boston area. Know anyone with first initial F, in his late 50’s now-had a married sister in Winthrop.
I iwill use it if my hands are full. If not, then I use te regular door.