1 post tagged “ada. tsol brace”
Most people would categorize the school that employees me as having a family friendly and caring atmosphere. I would agree with this characterization most of the time. The problem is that when you make any sort of sweeping generalization about a place it usually has a way of turning around and biting you square in the ass. I know that's a crass statement but I am angry with a few situations that have recently have occurred with my workplace. I am going to write about one of them today and perhaps provide a picture of this particular situation later on in the weekend. I didn't have my camera at school with me today.
As most readers of this blog know, I was injured and diagnosed with cancer on July 18th, 2007. I am doing better but I wear a full body brace and have limited mobility. I cannot bend at the waist and have significant problems sitting or standing for periods for extended periods of time. Part of the problem is the brace that I wear is straight backed and it doesn't work well with today's task chairs that have lumbar support. Another problem I have is using public restrooms which are not equipped with supportive rails or a higher toilet seat. I won't go into what the problems are but let's just say that a standard toilet is too short of me to deal with because I can't bend.
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act my employer is supposed to make 'reasonable accommodations' so I can do my job. I would assume 'reasonable accommodations' would include providing me with a restroom that was equipped with a 'handicapped stall'. Yesterday I went back to work for some meetings. The restroom on the floor that my office is on had a sign on the handicapped stall that said "Whoever Locked this Stall Can Unlock It". Apparently this stall was locked and our custodian felt that this was the way to handle it instead of fixing it. I thought...well...I can hold it and go down to the next floor which has a handicapped stall. I knew that this might be a problem because I was cutting it close not expecting the handicapped stall to be locked and our elevator is very slow to make it up to the fourth floor. I waited four minutes and thirty seconds for the elevator to find a line(!) on the third floor bathroom! I thought this is ridicules....and tried to hop back on the elevator to get to the first floor but was not successful in this attempt. So I gritted my teeth and waited for a stall to become available on the third floor. All the while thinking "Why wouldn't someone just fix the damn door on my floor?"
Perhaps it was unreasonable to think that I could expect that the handicapped restroom on the floor of the building where my office is to be functioning when I haven't been at work all semester. All I can say is that I hope that someone takes care of this situation before I need to use the bathroom again.
