The Eighth Floor

[autymn]

I work as a Physical Disabilities Specialist at a rather well known university which for my and my employers protection will remain namiless. Myself, I am blind and have neurological disabilities that result in fun things happening with the use of elevators (weeeeeee!) I also work with a service dog. Someone in university administration thought it brilliant to place our department on the eighth floor on the periphery of campus! This either means multiple trips up and down seven flights of stairs for me a day - something that is very taxing on my body/CNS or multiple rides on the elevator that causes its own set of issues. Oh, and of the three elevators, we're lucky if two are working.

And need i even mention the problem being on the eighth floor raises for the students I serve who use wheelchairs, crutches, or other mobility devices?!

Supposedly "they" have been working to get our department moved for "some time." Whatever that means.

Comments

A disabilities office on the eighth floor is the height of stupidity.

[ladygzb.livejournal.com]

I've been going to the Mayo Clinic Jax since last year.

They don't HAVE public staircases. This infuriates me every time I'm there. My neurological issues make elevators extremely unpleasant.

I typically have to arrive about 30 mins early to any appointment to recover from the be-damned elevators. (Or 30 mins early to track down a security officer to escort me up the elevators, which has become more hassle than it is worth.) This is impossible when I'm there for more than one appointment, because they schedule them so closely together.

Even disregarding that, they're a HOSPITAL. Shouldn't they be encouraging people to use stairs instead of elevators? Instead, they hide the stairs in staff-only areas. RRRRRRRRGH.

Re: A disabilities office on the eighth floor is the height of stupidity.

[exor674]

Isn't hiding the stairs bad for other reasons too?

Like... I dunno... "Oh shit the building's on fire!!!!"

Re: A disabilities office on the eighth floor is the height of stupidity.

[ladygzb.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Each time we're there, we keep looking for a fire evacuation route posted by the elevators, because we think that's pretty dumb too.

It would be a very COMPLICATED route. Because among other things, there is no single stairwell. To go up several floors, firs you go up one flight. Then you cut through a staff-only area--you might cross half the building--to another set of stairs. Then you cross ANOTHER staff-only area.

(This is why it's too much of a hassle to get security to escort us through the stairs. Instead, I just get my husband to half-carry me out of the elevators, sit me in a chair, and check me in for my appointment.)

The layout is perplexing--and frankly stupid.

Re: A disabilities office on the eighth floor is the height of stupidity.

[exor674]

This is going way off topic but, I totally love freaky evac. plans -- one of the classrooms at my school is right next to a parking lot exit -- but nooo the evac plan takes you through the building, to a walled-off courtyard, up 2 flights and along the building to a parking lot you could also have gotten to from the other door by just would involve walking up a hill instead of trapped in the middle of a potentially burning building.

Re: A disabilities office on the eighth floor is the height of stupidity.

[pauamma]

That was my first thought too.

I can beat it

[roserodent]

I can do better. One disabled students' office I have been to had the entrance door to the building set into the first floor, elevator inside, but not outside. They can let you in through a locked side door once you have gone up the stairs to let them know you want to get in.

Better is that to get a key to open the disabled access door on a campus building that is to date still waiting for a student swipecard point to be fitted 7 years after I asked for it, you have to go to the servitors' office and ask. The office is located ON a staircase, it's on the turn of a staircase opposte the elevator, and is the only room on campus which cannot in any way be accessed by step-free access regardless of which keys, swipecards and PIN codes you have.

Second hand story, but I've corroborated it...

[codeman38]

Back in the '90s, when public universities were required to accommodate students with disabilities but the ADA still hadn't been passed yet (and when I wasn't even a student there, on account of being in elementary school), my current university's disability services office was on the second floor of a building with no elevators.

Let me just repeat that, because it deserves repeating. The disability services office... was on the second floor... of a building without elevators. ::gesticulates like Lewis Black::

It was very quickly moved after someone got out of a wheelchair and crawled up the stairs to get to the office.

Re: Second hand story, but I've corroborated it...

[urocyon]

Call me bitter these days, but I'm almost surprised that the crawling was not taken as proof that the office was, indeed, accessible to the non-lazy.

Then again, most of my education happened before the ADA went into effect, and they rarely even pretended to think about accessibility. I temporarily needed a wheelchair, and realized I was very lucky indeed that I could just about crutch my way around after abandoning it in a hallway. The high school I started at stuck their generalized Special Needs room--about as bad a dumping ground as it sounds, anyway--on the second floor, with only stair access. Everybody with mobility problems ended up in a neighboring district which at least tried to do all kinds of accessibility (and so did I, eventually). That, of course, was taken as proof that things didn't need to change--where were the disabled students?!

Just got prompted by the pre-ADA mention. ;) Unfortunately, the "where are the disabled people?" thing is still a self-fulfilling problem, AFAICT.