That doesn’t make a difference if your chair is sticking out the door or you don’t have room to turn around and close it.
Perhaps they’re just afraid that you’ll park your wheelchair in front of the stall, then go scooting on your butt down the hallway to summon the security guard.
I think maybe the reason no one ever sees a handicapped person waiting in line for a public bathroom stall is because they’re all out cruising the parking lot looking for a place to park.
So I guess either we keep parking in their spots so they can’t even come into the mall or we have to give up the roomy stall so they can pee without waiting in line…
…wait…what?
The reason I decided to make this into it’s own debate thread is because of the recent events that have taken place at this new gym that I have finally found which is safisfactory to me (training wise). This gym, while also affiliated with a hospital network (although not Hurley), also has different rehab clinics and therapy centers which work out of the same building and utilize the fitness center in much of their work. Because of this, there are a high number of para/quadraplegics (esp. quads) and others with various disabilities that use this center as well as myself.
The management at this new gym, it’s called Genesys Athletic Club, is about as different as night is to day compared to the staff at HHFC. Like I’ve said, they not only permit my “wheelchair pullups” in their gym, they go out of their way to accomodate my needs for the exercise. I feel accepted here. Anyway, when it comes to the bathroom experience, GAC was no different than anywhere else. The handicap stall is the stall of first choice by everyone. Plus it serves as the dressing room for the guys who are too shy to change in the regular locker room (I forgot to mention, I am referring to the locker room restroom). I speak with no hyperbole when I say that virtually every single time I go to use the restoom, poop or pee, I am stymied by an occupied stall. Every single time I use the restroom.
Well I met with management several times to discuss the issue and I had a proposal I submitted to the head manager for consideration. Keep in mind, this place has a much-higher-than-average flow of disabled guests and members, so I had that in mind with my idea. Like a previous post pointed out, some people don’t even know what the stalls are really there for until they see a sign. I know, when people see me waiting outside of a stall, it’s very likely their first time EVER encountering such a situation, I am very empathetic of this. So my solution, specifically in regards to this one establishment, was to equip each handicap stall with a sign. This sign would have the standard “wheelchair guy” emblem AS WELL AS some simple reminder language. This “reminder language” would be nothing more than some level of paraphrasing of the argument I’ve made in the OP. It wouldn’t be any sort of “exclusionary” language barring anyone from using the handicap stall, rather an awareness provider, if you will.
The management actually agreed. They agreed, and they will print and make the signs. The stage we are at right now is WHAT the specific language will be. This has to be done carefully. And it has to be done briefly and concisely; as few words as possible. But to me, this is huge. I have never, anywhere, seen such signs on accessible stalls. Now of course, this is a special instance in a setting which is unlike most day to day settings but it wasn’t like this last month. Or last year. It’s SOME change.
The tube uses the word “Priority seat” under the sign, I’m sure something like this (Priority Stall) would be adequate.
A gym with a large number of disabled patrons is a little different than the usual gym, in which case a politely worded request that the able-bodied avoid using the accessible stall unless all others are in use seems reasonable.
Agreed! Seems like an idea we can all get behind.
Asking people not to change in the stall seems reasonable- people should not be changing in stalls anyway. It would probably be better for everyone, however, if the manager curtained off part of the changing room for those that want more privacy.
I still don’t buy that having to wait for one person to do their business- even if it is every time you go to the gym- places anywhere on the “problems wrth worrying about” scale. If you know the stall is going to be occupied, it wont’t destroy your workout to end two minutes earlier…
I don’t recall the exact verbiage, but on the buses in Seattle the signs say something like ‘Priority seating for disabled and elderly passengers. Please move if requested by the driver.’
Now see, if you would have said this (and the rest I snipped) in the first place, I’m sure not a single person would have objected. It was your proposal to do this with all handicapped accessible stalls that had people disagreeing.
Agreed. I certainly wouldn’t object to a request that people not use stalls as changing rooms. And if I were made aware that there was a high ratio of mobility impaired customers using the gym, it would make me think twice about using the accessible stall. It probably wouldn’t stop me from complaining to management if the standard stalls were ridiculously cramped. If they were, I may even continue to use the accessible stalls, but be sure to make it as quick as possible if someone came in while I was doing my business. I’m *very *uncomfortable in cramped stalls.
No, that wouldn’t work, it would have to be more. I’m fairly certain, had there already been such a sign in place at Genesys, I still would have waited every single time I needed a toilet. All “priority” is telling people is “if there is a handicapped individual present at the same moment as you, please give priority to the disabled person.” No, it would need some sort of gentle reminder that the stall should only be used if necessary. How likely is it for two people (one of which is handicapped) to simultaneously go for the same stall? That is the scenario that keeps getting used as the only logical time to not use the handicap-accessible stall as an able-bodied patron.
It’s easy.
Simple and direct. And any able-bodied person that uses the accessible stall is a person in need. Nuff said.
If the handicapped stall is expected to get heavy use by people with disabilities, such as at your gym, then what about a a lock on the stall, and keys distributed to disabled patrons when they sign up for gym membership? An attendant in the locker room or front desk or where ever could have an extra key to loan out on request to anyone, but they’d have to make the extra effort. The attendant’s key would be like the ones at the gas station, attached to something large enough that the person wouldn’t run off with it. The sign on the stall door would then say something like, “Key to handicapped stall available at front desk.”
Exactly. Yes.
“Priority shitting for disabled and elderly Please move if requested by the dumper.”
Instead of dumper, I’d use handicrapper.
Hey, if there’s five stalls open and one is the size of my first apartment out of college, I’m using that baby. Now if a handicapped person showsup and yells, “Hey, I need that stall!” then I’ll hustle out and let him have it. Otherwise, it’s silly to consign myself to the the little closet-like stall that has me doing circus-like contortions just to complete a bodily function.
Just please don’t park your car out side my stall, call security, then complain here that you were grossly mistreated.
I didn’t realize you could balance a wheelchair on such a high horse.
Funny, this is the same argument used by assholes who park there “nice cars” illegally in handicap parking spots to avoid cramped parking. “Hey, this car cost $100,000. I’m not risking someone dinging me. There are 5 handicap spots open and I NEVER see a handicap person parking in any of them. If a handicap person needs this space, I’ll gladly move.” Now what you do isn’t illegal, the mentality behind your actions is the same.
Which, if the person were in the car with the keys, able to move at short notice, would actually not be the worst thing in the world. Since he’s not - he’s away from the parked car and can’t move it in a timely fashion - it has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, and is a horrible analogy on your part.
I agree with the posters who said if you were simply clearer that there was a specific situation you were trying to handle (in the OP), that you would have gotten a lot less argument and more sympathy and advice than you did. I sense this is a pattern with you. You’re a crusader. And there’s nothing wrong with that, really, but it’s going to be met with a lot of resistance when you try to take small, local issues and conflate them with larger global issues.
You don’t have a problem with able bodied people using a handicapped stall in a general sense. You have a problem (and a very legitimate one) with a specific stall in a specific gym with a specific clientele which includes quite a higher percentage of disabled people than the general public, and the use of the stall you have a problem with isn’t as a bathroom stall, but as a changing room. That really bears no relation to the generalized issue of able-bodied people using the handicapped stall for elimination, which is what we all thought you were talking about in your OP.
Keep your activism local and specific, and you’re going to be a lot more effective. One size rarely fits all, and that includes “arguments” like your OP.