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Passing in the night - Interlude 1
Written by Sean on Wednesday, August 17, 2005
This "interlude" in the story Passing in the Night is based on a true event in my own life. I haven’t changed many details at all…
Jim had been invited to attend a conference in the US Midwest. In fact, he was to present a paper about the difference in management styles in terms of human resources in a small company compared to a large enterprise at the conference. He was both excited about the idea of presenting his paper, and bored with the thought of having to travel half-way across the country. He was going to make his own travel arrangements, because he had yet to find a travel agent that “got it” and really could provide him with the services he needed and insure access to the level he needed.
Two weeks ahead of his arrival date, he rang the hotel where the conference was to take place. He asked for the reservation desk, and went through his list of questions:
“Do you have wheelchair accessible rooms?” – “yes”.
“How wide are the doors to the room and bathroom within the room?” – “they are 32 inches wide”.
“How much floor space is there in the bathroom?” – “all our wheelchair accessible rooms were recently completely renovated to the ADA Accessibility Guidelines”.
“Ok, thanks. I’d like to make a reservation.”
And while he did have more questions, he felt reassured that the clerk had mentioned the ADAAG.
When came time to travel, he rang the hotel again to confirm his reservation for a wheelchair accessible room.
He drove himself to the airport and left his car in the long term parking area. After an uneventful flight, he retrieved his bag and aimed for the shuttle area. If all went according to plans, there would be an accessible shuttle waiting for him. He’d had quite a “fight” making sure the hotel would provide an accessible shuttle. Since they provide a regular shuttle service for all other guests going from the airport to their hotel, they had to provide an accessible one upon request. It took some convincing to do that, but after mentions of recent court cases supporting this, the hotel managed to suddenly find a way to provide the accessible shuttle. “Typical”, Jim thought…
After looking around, he found the shuttle. The driver was waiting for him, with the lift extended at the back of the van, doors open. They didn’t lose any time getting loaded. It was obvious to Jim that he wasn’t the first wheelchair user the driver was securing in the van, and they worked well together.
Jim got in the lift, and the driver got the lift to go up. When the platform was level with the floor of the van, Jim wheeled forward, lifting his front casters to avoid the slight bump where the platform met the van’s floor. He positioned himself approximately in the middle of the area where the straps would be reaching. The driver got in the van, and started securing Jim’s chair. One strap going to the front right caster, another to the front left caster. Then one strap in the back, attached to the frame of Jim’s chair. He asked about securing it through the wheels, but that wouldn’t work. He also asked about seat belt for Jim, but Jim actually felt safer without. He knew someone who had gotten seriously hurt in a car accident because of that so called security belt for a wheelchair user. The driver folded the lift, shut the door, and confirmed their destination.
They talked about nothing and everything during the 30 minutes drive to the hotel. As they pulled in the hotel’s parking lot, Jim looked for the ramp leading into the lobby, as there were four steps going to the main door. There didn’t appear to be a ramp anywhere. The driver unfastened all the straps for Jim to be released. “How do you get in?”, the driver asked. “No idea, could you do me a favour and go ask at the front desk?”, Jim responded.
And with that, the driver walked up the four steps and went into the hotel. He talked with the front desk clerk for a few minutes and they both came out to speak with Jim. The clerk apologised, saying that they actually didn’t have a ramp to get in the hotel.
“What? You mean to tell me that you spend all kind of money to completely bring your accessible rooms up to ADAAG standards, but you don’t have a ramp to get in the hotel in the first place?”, exclaimed Jim.
The clerk apologised again, saying that indeed Jim was correct, and that it had been a bit of an oversight. The clerk offered to get a couple staff and carry Jim up into the hotel. This was not acceptable to Jim, not at all. It was simply too dangerous. The clerk explained further that they didn’t even have a level entry at the back of the hotel for deliveries and such.
Jim was fuming. After being so careful to make sure he could use the facilities, he wasn’t able to even get in. The clerk offered to find him a room somewhere else, but since Jim had to attend the conference in this particular hotel, this solution was no good.
The clerk called the front desk manager, who could not offer any help, other than offering to carry Jim up the steps. Eventually, the hotel’s General Manager was called. She apologised profusely and explained that he was the first “wheelchair bound” person to need a room since their renovation, and they were quite surprised by this problem of the steps! They offered to find him a room at another hotel for the night, and to get a carpenter to come build a temporary ramp.
Jim agreed to that, but pointed out that the ramp would need to be at least 25 foot long otherwise it would be too steep to use safely. The hotel was lucky they had plenty of room to put such a long ramp.
And so Jim was able to use the hotel, but remained amazed at the sheer ignorance of the hotel management, design team, architects and builders. Oh, yes, the entire interior of the hotel was actually a dream in terms of accessibility. But getting into that dream turned out to be a nightmare!
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