# Your arms are not broken. Open the door.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [December 13, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662 "2004-12-13T21:29:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/61 "2004-12-18T01:21:19Z")

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A. Didn’t we just do this a month or two ago?

B. The door-opening mechanism may not break down often, but the buttons do. People can’t be satisfied to push them, they punch them, kick them, and otherwise brutalize them. Screws get broken, contacts get worn out, and the person who needs the button is deprived. I don’t cast aspersions on able-bodied people who want to use them, especially if they’re juggling packages and so forth, but if they can’t use the buttons gently and respectfully, I’d rather they didn’t use them at all.

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**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/62 "2004-12-18T01:27:16Z")

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I’ll walk through it if it’s open when I get to it due to someone else pushing the button, but I always just use the regular door otherwise. At my college, the people I see using the handicapped door are almost always male athletes travelling in packs. Maybe holding the door for another guy is gay and they can’t have that? I don’t know. But I am exceptionally weak, whereas they are presumably not, and I use the regular doors.

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**Author:** ![Shadez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Shadez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadez)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-arms-are-not-broken-open-the-door/279662/63 "2004-12-18T03:57:01Z")

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My experience with automatic doors is that they are hard as _heck_ to open and close, especically when you’re already weakened by a mild case of cerebral palsy. But I do it anyway because _I’m_ not in a blue wheelchair like the picture on the button suggests _blinks innocently_

/S

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