Building Design and Accessible Bathrooms

We left off when I was joining the board of directors at my local YMCA. If you haven’t read part one of this story, check that out first before reading this one.

Design for mobility-impaired individuals

I could now use my years of experience as a wheelchair user to add insight into design features. These features would hopefully help all mobility-impaired individuals to use the Y’s facility with greater ease.

Serving on a nonprofit board comes with a lot of other responsibilities. I won’t bore you with that. I just want to stick to the accessibility aspect.

Just to be clear - when I say Y, I mean my local branch. This doesn’t mean all of the Y’s.

Accessibility features in the locker rooms

The Y was an older building originally built in the 1970s, well before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It originally had a men’s and women’s locker room.

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Then the Y added an addition in the 2000s. This addition included boy’s and girl’s youth locker rooms.

These locker rooms included accessibility features. There was also a separate family/ADA locker room added.

When I originally joined the Y, I used the family/ADA locker room exactly one time. The main door into the building was the only door that had an automatic door opener.

Once inside the family/ADA locker room, there were 3 individual bathrooms. Each was equipped with an accessible toilet, shower, and roll-under sink.

Lacking an automatic door in the bathroom

This was great, however, there was one huge glaring problem. No automatic door!

On my 1st day as a member, I found myself stuck inside an accessible bathroom inside the family/ADA locker room. The problem with this locker room was that it was not heavily used during the day.

I waited about 20 minutes before I heard anyone come into this locker room. I called out through the door asking for assistance.

An awkward situation

I immediately felt the awkwardness of the situation. On the other side of the door was a mom with her 2 kids.

Here I am a middle-aged man asking this mom to open a bathroom door while her two kids are standing with her.

I assured her that I was fully dressed and I needed help because I was disabled. I could hear the hesitation in her voice.

Once she cracked open the door and saw me sitting in my scooter, I could tell she was relieved. After this awkward event, I started using the men’s locker room even though it did not have an accessible shower or toilet.

Working to benefit others with disabilities

After officially joining the board of directors, I joined the building and grounds committee. I initially felt out of place.

I was sitting around a table with 2 people who owned construction companies, 2 more people who worked for construction companies and the rest had other experience relating to building maintenance.

While I did not have any experience regarding construction or building maintenance, I knew I was going to be able to give valuable insight into accessibility features that would benefit people with disabilities.

It’s funny how when I started this story in part 1, I wanted to give a little back story. Keep an eye out for part 3. I’ll get to my point.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The SpinalMuscularAtrophy.net team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

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