doors

[adrian_turtle]

I live in an apartment building that makes no pretense of being accessible to wheelchairs. Sure, there's an elevator...but every door to the outside has a nasty trip-ledge and several steps up to street level. I don't need wheelchair access, personally. I need doors I can open, despite chronic hand and shoulder problems. I had thought I was coping ok. Then I noticed how often I was staying in the apartment to avoid the additional pain flares caused by pulling open the heavy building doors.

I haven't asked the landlord to install automatic door openers. I don't know if it's something they're legally required to do under the ADA or some Massachusetts law. It's not a workplace or any kind of public building. It's just a 40+ year old building with a few dozen apartments. I don't even have a sense of how difficult and expensive it is to install an automatic door opener (for an outside door that has to be locked). If it's a small thing, I think I'd feel more willing to push for it. I also don't know how my neighbors feel about it. Demonstrably, they can all get the door open, but some may well find it painful or difficult. My disabilities are not generally visible, and I've lost jobs for disclosing them. It makes it feel dangerous to speak to landlord or neighbors about a situation that's painful but not intolerable.

Any suggestions--diplomatic, legal, or technical? Or reassurance that of course nobody would try any kind of retaliation?

Comments

[megaptera]

Door openers are easy peasy to install. In my building it was done in an afternoon. A heavy door may have to be changed to be compatible with the opener; our building's front doors were already lightweight enough that the motor could handle them.

I googled a bit and found the Massachusetts Office on Disability, which seems to be a state government department that makes sure regulations etc. are followed and also seems to do some advocacy for citizens. Their client services page might be the way to contact someone and ask what your rights are, and in particular you could say that you're worried about how your landlord would react if you asked for this to be done.

[jadelennox]

If you're in Massachusetts, they're required to make the building ADA-compliant only if they do some amount of other maintenance or construction. However, sometimes you can push it.

My mother just successfully fought for and got a ramp put in to her greater Boston building. If you want to PM me, I can tell you more about it, maybe put you in touch with her? It was a condo not a rental, but same general building type, I suspect.

[synecdochic]

And as a side note, it's quite possible to combine door opener + locked door. Our old apartment had a simple opener where you'd type in your keycode or scan your keycard and then hit the "door open" button to open the door.

(mind you, it was possible to set the door opener to "stay open" (ie, for people to haul shit in without having to open the door over and over again) and people did that a lot and then flipped the switch to "off" instead of "open with button", which would sometimes leave me standing in the vestibule fuming and having to awkwardly fumble the door open. I had to leave a few pointed passive-aggressive notes with the univeral wheelchair symbol + "If you turn this off I cannot enter the building. Please make sure the switch stays set to 'on'.")

[megaptera]

That too. With ours you scan your keychain bonker, and you hear the door latch click open and then it starts to swing. It's all automated.

[sasha_feather]

You have a right to accommodation and you are worth it. <3

[jesse_the_k]

I want this to be a whole lot easier to understand, but from the ADA.gov site, and the latest revisions to the law and the design guidelines:

http://www.ada.gov//regs2010/2010ADAStandards/2010ADAstandards.htm#titleIII

begin quote  404.2.9 Door and Gate Opening Force. Fire doors shall have a minimum opening force allowable by the appropriate administrative authority. The force for pushing or pulling open a door or gate other than fire doors shall be as follows:

1. Interior hinged doors and gates: 5 pounds (22.2 N) maximum.

2. Sliding or folding doors: 5 pounds (22.2 N) maximum.

These forces do not apply to the force required to retract latch bolts or disengage other devices that hold the door or gate in a closed position.

Advisory 404.2.9 Door and Gate Opening Force. The maximum force pertains to the continuous application of force necessary to fully open a door, not the initial force needed to overcome the inertia of the door. It does not apply to the force required to retract bolts or to disengage other devices used to keep the door in a closed position. quote ends

Even though I've been reading those regs for decades, I must confess I have no idea what the previous paragraph means. Depending on its ownership and funding, the apartment complex may be covered by the Fair Housing Act (either instead of or in addition to the ADA). The good news is that the door open/close force in the FHA is also 5 pounds (interior) and 8.5 (exterior). Fixing that is pretty easy: stand on something, use tool to adjust force.

I've been having hand/arms issues lately and I so feel your pain re doors!

[archane]

disclaimer required by my offline qualifications: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

I can't speak to Massachusetts law at all, but under federal law, neither the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or the Fair Housing Act (FHA) have any specific requirements that automatic door openers be installed. However, the ADA requires that services and programs be accessible, and the FHA requires that certain housing units have minimum levels of accessibility. It may be possible to argue that you need automatic door openers to have equal access and enjoyment of your home.

Even if that doesn't apply, your apartment complex is most likely required to allow you to install an automatic door opener. This is the stance may apartment owners chose to take, because it means you're required to pay for the costs instead of them.

Installing automatic door openers on existing doors can range from relatively cheap to $10,000+, depending on whether or not it's a fire door, and how much force is required to keep the door closed based on prevailing interior and exterior air patterns and local weather. There are often state, federal, and local grants that can help pay for accessibility repairs and upgrades, and you may be able to tap into some of that.

In considering whether your apartment manager may retaliate, some questions to ask yourself which may help you find an answer are:
• Are you asking them to pay, or paying yourself?
• Do you have legal or professional support that the property manager knows about? (Support from a lawyer, legal service, or advocacy service can encourage them to allow the modification, but if they decide they don't want it, the same support can escalate retaliation because you're getting outsiders involved to force the issue.)
• Does the property manager prioritize building uniformity over tenant usability vice versa? (Do all of the buildings look identical, or are there things like ramps and lever door handles which exist in some places but not in others?)
• Do you have an established, good relationship with your property manager and maintenance staff?

In general, if you feel comfortable advocating for yourself, I'd recommend starting by having a conversation with your property manager, telling them that the force needed to open specific doors aggravates your disability (you don't have to specify what that disability is, and they're not allowed to ask), and that installing automatic door openers would make your home livable again, but you're open to other possibilities which would have the same result.

If you don't feel comfortable advocating for yourself, there may be a legal assistance center or center for independent living in your area where someone can help advocate with you.

I know this is a lot of information, but I hope at least some of it is helpful!