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Have you seen the latest ADA reg.?

Ken_8
Ken_8 Member Posts: 1,640
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Comments

  • John@Reliable_9
    John@Reliable_9 Member Posts: 122


    Reminds me of an electrical supplier I go to (trade only). They had to spend $10,000 to install a hydraulic lift so electricians in wheelchairs could get to the order counter. It’s now about 10 years old and no one knows if it still works because it has NEVER been used.
  • jackchips_2
    jackchips_2 Member Posts: 1,338
    American's with

    disability act is a great example of Americans helping others. If the act is followed there is very little inconvenience to owners, builders, etc. and tremendous help to the less fortunate.

    If aggressive, arrogant administrators overstep their authority well, we get $10,000.00, unused lifts and Ken's masterpiece, although it doesn't look like the chair will fit through the trap door.
  • Constantin
    Constantin Member Posts: 3,796
    The wheelchair provisions always made me wonder...

    ... would it be cheaper to legislate the use of Kahns gyroscoped chair to allow those who rely on wheelchairs to climb stairs or is the expensive retrofit of all US infrastructure more cost efficient?

    I don't claim to know the answer, I just wonder, considering that these special wheelchairs (the predecessor to the Segway) cost something like $25,000 each (perhaps less in volume).

    On a side note, one feature that makes these chairs ultra-neat for the wheelchair-bound is that they can "stretch" to stand on two wheels only and bring the wheelchair user to almost the same height as a standing person. That seems to do wonders for the psychological well-being of those that otherwise always have to look up to people.
  • DaveC
    DaveC Member Posts: 201
    Maybe Ken's ramp is for...

    the (disabled) executioner to use?
  • DaveGateway
    DaveGateway Member Posts: 568
    My favorite...

    is when when my disabled brother needed a B&G 100 coupler for his home boiler. I sent him to one of my suppliers branch facilities and told him to purchase on my account. After he "sticked" his way way to the counter, he told them, "Yeah, I run service for Goebig Mechanical and I need a couple of couplings for a B&G".

    My handicapped "journeyman" was a source of discussion for a while around the branches of that supplier. Everyone who meets him marvels at this schoolteacher's abilities, stamina, and drive.

    He really doesn't need ADA legislation but I'm sure others do.
  • Mad Dog
    Mad Dog Member Posts: 2,595
    The real travesty is the very questionable issuance of

    handicapped parking permits. I know several people who have them because they have "bad knees" or are grossly overweight. Most permits seemed justified, but it has definitely been overstated and over-enforced. I have no problem seeing 2 or 3 spots in fast food place, but when you consistently see 8 spots that lie empty every time you go, you see the overzealous, feel-good folly it has become. Mad Dog

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  • DaveC
    DaveC Member Posts: 201
    Now my supermarket has reserved parking for...

    "Parents with small children" - seriously! Their next to the existing handicapped spots. My wife has CP and suffered a minor stroke, but we've yet to ever use any "special" provisions.
  • Lurker_2
    Lurker_2 Member Posts: 123
    the cartoon is funny but...

    The biggest problems are usually when people don't consult the code before building[sound familiar] Imagine how frustrating it would be to have an expensive modified car, chair etc, and everywhere you went was a 4 inch curb! Even a trade only counter would have salepeople, employees etc. Think about the secretary or counter people, they could do their job from a chair, but not if they couldn't get in the building. Most ADA mods aren't that expensive, and most places don't require you to do anything untill you want to change something.

    You should see my ADA bathroom, 4 steps or a loading dock to get in here, but once in you have the most accessable bathroom.....
  • JimGPE_8
    JimGPE_8 Member Posts: 15
    HP Urinals

    I once read a story about a building owner who was refused an occupancy permit until he installed a handicapped urinal. His reply was he'd be happy to install one as soon as someone could tell him what purpose it would serve. Wheel chair bound folks cannot get close enough to use them, and anyone who is standing, whether or not with the aid of crutches, is tall enough to use a non-HP version.

    Anyone know the purpose of HP urinals? All these years later I still wonder.
  • Matt Clina
    Matt Clina Member Posts: 90
    Handicap Urinals

    I've always wondered the same thing. It always seemed like a politically correct thing: You have to have the right to pee standing up, even though you cannot actually stand up.

    Reminds me of the scene in "The Life of Brian", where they wanted to give Stan (Loretta) the right to have babies, even though (s)he didn't have a womb. Where's the fetus gonna gestate? You gonna keep it in a box?
  • jackchips_2
    jackchips_2 Member Posts: 1,338
    Jim,

    accessible provisions are not just for individuals in wheelchairs. The law has been a necessity because most builders and developers will only meet the letter of the law and would not spend one dime more to accomodate the less fortunate among us.

    As far as the Urinal height, my understanding was because some men wish to empty their bags in the urinal. Although they can also be used by the "height challenged", including young boys.
  • Uni R
    Uni R Member Posts: 663
    Now my supermarket has reserved parking for...

    Jim, when my twins were small, my wife was extremely thankful when these spots were available. They are strictly there as a courtosy to the customers. Anyone can legally park in these spots. It is much easier when trying to transport babies to shopping carts and vice versa.


    I'll agree with everyone else on the questionable nature of some people having access to handicapped spots. Especially when they don't need mobility devices and they are parking there merely to go for a long stroll in the park. Seen it! L
  • DaveC
    DaveC Member Posts: 201
    I didn't think that designation could be enforced...

    but I still wouldn't park there - I'd leave it for whom it is intended. But I still can't help getting P.O.'d when I see the able-bodied but rude people with their fat kids wearing their pants down below their butts and their eyes glued to their video game parking there and taking a short waddle to the store, after I just passed it up! (sorry for the rant, I just found out about the school budget hike)
  • Robert O'Connor_7
    Robert O'Connor_7 Member Posts: 688
    Ken..

    That picture is certinly making it's rounds at ALOT of Building Departments around the great state of New Jersey. Interestingly enough was an article I read the other day about the Supreme Court ruled that it is cruel to execute someone via lethal injection because the person about to be executed that way use to be a drug addict and therefore his veins were all used up, maybe they should use your new UCC approved gallows..Great Pic, made my day!..Robert O'Connor/NJ
  • Uni R
    Uni R Member Posts: 663
    Jim

    You obviously know what's proper and what's not. They don't and furthermore they don't care. Don't sweat it over them. Life's short, and kharma will catch up to them.


    My three pet peeves are men wearing hats in restaurants, people taking shortcuts across lawns, and people not pulling completely out of the way for emergency veicles (and also at night putting on just their parking lights once they have fully stopped so they know you are out of the equation). I also know that I don't have enough time, energy or patience to rectify this and I remind myself of this all the time. I can only control myself and teach my kids... and breath deeply when it happens. Take care and relax next time. :-)
  • jbplumber
    jbplumber Member Posts: 89
    ADA bathrooms

    Here's a good one. A few years ago we plumbed a 2 story commercial building. 2 Bathrooms on 2nd floor. Both had to be handicap accessible, which made no sense because there was no elevator and no way for a handicap person to get to the 2nd floor. :)
  • Ed_13
    Ed_13 Member Posts: 164
    Got a better one

    How about this one:

    I was at an air show on Oshkosh Wi., and I was talking to a pilot who is based at a small airport. That airport received federal money to update their general facility. Part of that update was to put a key pad operated gate in, so private pilots could enter a code and get their cars through the gate to get to the area where the small private planes are parked.

    When the final inspection was being done by the Feds, they found that the key pad for the gate was not compliant with brail for use by the blind. They held up the opening of the airport for several weeks until the key pad was replaced with an ADA compliant brail pad.

    This is a key pad, you operate from your CAR, to go to your PLANE and go FLY!!!

    Is it just ME???? Or What

    Your tax dollars at work.

    Ed Carey
  • Constantin
    Constantin Member Posts: 3,796
    On the other hand...

    ...as one of my Professors likes to ask, the main engineering building at Tufts has no female bathrooms on the third floor, even though they exist on the floors below. Why?

    Because there were no female engineering professors or students when the building was built. The bathrooms on the floors below were meant for the secretaries, naturally. Here's one to you Prof. Knox, for helping open my eyes to the non-obvious (with a dose of statics along the way).

    So while I agree that some interpretations of the rules and regulations are nonsensical, they can mean a world of difference to those that are wheelchair-bound or otherwise impaired. One instance that pops out in my mind was a female courtroom reporter in NYC (IIRC) that has to be carried up the steps every day because there is no wheelchair access to the courtrooms. That must get pretty old pretty quickly.

    Like some rules in the heating and plumbing trade, there is a reason they were created. Sometimes they get misapplied and the rest of us get caught in the middle.

    For example, my local DPW is pressuring me to install a separate water service to the house for the fire-sprinkler service. Now, this rule makes sense as far as administrative tasks go because this means that they can shut off my water for non-payment separately from the fire service (which they cannot).

    All well and good except the water pressure is so low (30 psi) that I'll store the water on site and use a pressure pump! (Raimondo system). So the fire line would serve NO purpose, as 100% of the required water would be on site... but that doesn't seem to sway the folks we have spoken to yet, perhaps all the more understable since it's not their cash that they're legislating away. Argh!
  • DaveC
    DaveC Member Posts: 201
    Yep, each person has their own mindset...

    What they or others are entitled to, what is proper or improper, etc...
  • Lurker_2
    Lurker_2 Member Posts: 123
    silly....

    I was in a storage place the other day. There was this woman standing there by the exit gate when I pulled up. She was stuck in there. Couldn't open the gate cause she didn't have the 500lbs of steel ot make the auto gate open. No other exit. No way to reach the keypad. She had walked in to meet her boyfriend who wasn't there.
    Things do not always get used the way we intend.

    The realwaste of money is that the ada keypad was no doubt in the spec, costs a tiny bit more than the regular, and someone ignored it, 'cause they knew better, how many times have you seen that in your work?
  • jbplumber
    jbplumber Member Posts: 89
    ada airport

    please board, flights now departing from absurdistan...
  • Brian
    Brian Member Posts: 285
    The other side of the coin

    I saw on the local news this week about a ice cream shop in a small town in Southern Ontario.There are 3 or 4 nursing homes in town and the shop wanted to put a ramp in for the disabled instead of going up the 2 steps.The town has refused the request because it would restrict the sidewalk at the front of the store.

    Brian
This discussion has been closed.