Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Handicap stalls in public bathrooms (Dear Abby)
Dear Abby on uExpress
DEAR ABBY: A few months ago, I was out shopping when I got the urge to use the washroom. When I got there, the line was out the door. There was about a 10-minute wait.
As I finally neared the stall, the woman ahead of me in line began to bounce. I could empathize. But right before a stall became available, a woman in a wheelchair rolled in and parked next to us. (Of course, the handicap stall was the next one available.)
The person ahead of me began to walk forward, but the woman in the wheelchair became loud and belligerent about being handicapped, and claimed the stall. The woman in front of me and I just looked at each other -- and then she deferred to the individual in the wheelchair.
Please set me straight, Abby. Should a handicapped individual take precedence over a stall when the washroom line is long? -- MORALLY CONFUSED IN JOLIET, ILL.
DEAR CONFUSED: I'm overjoyed to set you straight. Handicapped stalls are set aside for people with disabilities to use because their wheelchairs will not fit into a regular stall. Without question, the person with the physical disability should have access to it first. Absolutely!
BULLSHIT
Comments:
I have to agree with you. I could understand if the wheelchair lady had waited in line too, but she didn't.
I'm hoping to express my disagreement with Dear Abby more eloquently, but I figured I'd stick this up as Published rather than Draft since I haven't posted in a bit.
You don't leave your car in the Handicap spot because you might not be there to move it when somebody who "needs" it needs it. (I've been told by guards to move on when waiting in a car in such a spot, and in those cases I usually obey and wait in the traffic lane.) Most of the time there are other spots available, but less convenient.
But the handicap-accessible bathroom stall, or the Cripple Stool as Larry the Cable Guy calls it, is just a regular stall with a wider door and such.
If there are two open stalls and a handicapped individual will need one before you're going to be done, then you're obliged to use the less accessible stall. Otherwise, they've got no greater claim or entitlement than anybody else. (An argument could be made that they have less, but we're still too socialistic for that.)
Accomodations have been made, but that doesn't equal entitlement. If the aisles in a library are made wider, and the shelves lower, so that some people who were physically unable to use the library are now able to do so, these people have no more claim to the library than any other patron.
If every stall in the library in the Dear Abby situation were handicap-accessible, the handicapped individual wouldn't have the right to go to the head of the line.
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You don't leave your car in the Handicap spot because you might not be there to move it when somebody who "needs" it needs it. (I've been told by guards to move on when waiting in a car in such a spot, and in those cases I usually obey and wait in the traffic lane.) Most of the time there are other spots available, but less convenient.
But the handicap-accessible bathroom stall, or the Cripple Stool as Larry the Cable Guy calls it, is just a regular stall with a wider door and such.
If there are two open stalls and a handicapped individual will need one before you're going to be done, then you're obliged to use the less accessible stall. Otherwise, they've got no greater claim or entitlement than anybody else. (An argument could be made that they have less, but we're still too socialistic for that.)
Accomodations have been made, but that doesn't equal entitlement. If the aisles in a library are made wider, and the shelves lower, so that some people who were physically unable to use the library are now able to do so, these people have no more claim to the library than any other patron.
If every stall in the library in the Dear Abby situation were handicap-accessible, the handicapped individual wouldn't have the right to go to the head of the line.
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