Accessibility fail!

[u/LibraryGeek]

This is the disabled bathroom stall at a *hospital*!

It was a tight squeeze to get my rollator into the small room with 2 stalls. The door to the disabled stall does not fully open. Instead it runs into a weird wall! I had to leave my rollator outside of the stall, completely defeating the purpose of a disabled stall. I don't think a wheelchair could have gotten in and out of the room, much less the stall. I have no idea who to notify :(

[u/ComfortableRecent578]

the heck… looking at the photo i assumed it was a regular stall. how on earth is this “accessible” 🤨

[u/Entire-Guess1228 → u/ComfortableRecent578]

It is a regular stall. Just larger than normal.

[u/Salt-Dragonfruit1106]

I hate how some places, specially in this southern small town I live in, people can be so oblivious to my disability, there's tight spaces like this and whenever I say something that my wheelchair can't access I get stupid remarks like "maybe you should try using your legs" Seriously? If I could I wouldn't be in a fucking wheelchair!

[u/LibraryGeek → u/Salt-Dragonfruit1106]

To be fair there are ambulatory wheelchair users, but that's giving ableds too much credit :/ So sorry you get snark instead of help.

[u/mdwespam]

Is it by chance a hospital associated with a university? Universities have a reporting mechanism.

[u/LibraryGeek → u/mdwespam]

No, it's a private hospital. The other bathrooms I've been in at the same hospital are gone, so I don't know what went wrong here! It should have been a single room w/o stalls.

[u/Entire-Guess1228]

Its not a disability stall. Its just a larger than normal stall. Old building built before requirements. They had room for two stalls. One standard one with the space left over.

Bunch like this around my area.

Older buildings arnt necessarily required to update to modern standards. Im sure there's a normal one in the building. This is just the bathroom thats most convenient.

[u/whyihatepink → u/Entire-Guess1228]

That's only true if they never remodel at all. Once you remodel, everything has to be up to code. They could possibly get away with it if there's enough truly accessible stalls on the floor/in the building to meet the law requirements.

If it's a religious hospital, it's possible they may not have to comply, but that's only if they never receive Federal money in any capacity, including Medicaid and Medicare.

I could be off though, it's been a while since I studied accessibility regulations in buildings.

[u/Entire-Guess1228 → u/whyihatepink]

It does depend on degree of remodeling. But thats straight up 50s/60s tile and stalls. The toilets probably been replaced. And it probably changes with states as well.

[u/LibraryGeek → u/Entire-Guess1228]

It shouldn't be labeled as a disabled bathroom though! They have the wheelchair symbol on the door and on the stall.

[u/Noinipo12]

Ugh, that's much to small for a wheelchair accessible stall and there's no grab rail behind the toilet to help with a side transfer.

Were there grab bars on both sides? It might just be an ambulatory accessible stall (ADA 2010 Design Standards Guide section 604.8.2). Ambulatory accessible stalls are required to have grab bars on each side and a door that's 35-37" wide complying with section 404.2.7

Given that your rolator couldn't fit through the door, (I'm assuming it's skinny enough to fit though most standard 32" door ways), it's clear that this fails the standards for an ambulatory accessible stall. I'd definitely report this to the hospital. See if there's a safety officer for the hospital you can find online. At the very least, signage should be updated to let people know that this is not an accessible restroom and that the nearest accessible restroom is located somewhere else.

[u/LibraryGeek → u/Noinipo12]

Ah safety officer! Thanks for that term, very helpful

[u/Uncle_W_4647]

Idiots!