Major Fail

[aquinasprime]

A condo board in Staten Island is fighting a mother who wants to install a wheelchair lift for her 4 year old daughter. There are so many things wrong with this that I'm not sure where to begin. Even worse, though, are the commenters on the article who are telling her to move because the condo has rules and she should just get over it.

Comments

[phoenixsong]

*sigh* Nothing like a little rage-inducing stupid first thing in the morning :P

[amadi]

What's interesting about this is that amongst other groups that magically don't have to conform to federal law, there have been court cases exempting homeowners' associations from the ADA. I'm not sure if a condo board is the same as a homeowners' association but there is some precedent supporting this type of ridamndiculous discrimination.

What this means, in practice, is that they could get away with this, even though the backyard that the mother objects to (because of snow removal) as an alternative location isn't actually accessible either.

[archersangel]

sometimes i just don't understand people.

[trouble]

Are "safety issues" code for "wheelchair lifts lower the properly values"?

[treeowl]

The comments were somewhat sickening. It'd be good to do something to fix this loophole in the ADA, but that seems unlikely.

[supermouse]

What got me was the comments from the condo resident claiming that the mother was lying and never used the wheelchair for her daughter except for the photo op, and just wanted the lift to be selfish.

I mean duh, if the kid doesn't *need* a wheelchair lift why the hell would they fight so hard for one, since they're fugly and, if you *can* use stairs, stairs are more convenient and a lot faster.

That's like all those arguments about people being wheelchair users because 'they're too lazy too walk' when using a wheelchair is *way* more hassle for just about everything except scooting along long, flat stretches of ground.