Every day for the past few months staff at Lake Bluff School has been passing through the changing doors that open to the parking lot. We used to have to come down a ramp, stand at the door on the right, ring a doorbell and open the door on the left. When we entered the 21st century, we swiped our way in on the left and pulled open the door. Better. All the while, however, even though a sign said wheelchair accessible it really wasn't and everyone knew it. Anyone in a wheelchair has a devil of a time trying to get in and get out on their own. But one day something had changed. An automatic door had finally been installed but it became clear that there were just a couple things the installers forgot to think about…
Picture this; you are in your wheelchair going into the only door that doesn’t have steps either before or after it. It is the door to the parking lot and accessible only after rolling down a ramp that leads to a bit of a pit with locked glass doors. You are surrounded on three sides by wall, door and steps, which leave you only a few feet for maneuvering your ride. You see the handicapped equipped sign and think you’ll be able to get in. Not so fast. Before you can get in, you have to have someone in the office release the lock on the door. In order to do this you have to ring a doorbell which is to the right of the double doors. You roll over to it, but it’s up so high you can’t reach it unless you get out of your chair and reach. Problem number 1. Well let’s say you were traveling with a meter stick that day and you poked the doorbell so it rang. The person in the office unlocked the door and you realize it’s not the door on the right where the doorbell is, but the door on the left that you need. You back your chair up, turn it, get situated in front of the door on the left, and push the bright blue handicapped entry pad which is on the left. The whole time, the person in the office must be laying on the lock open button which buzzes very loudly the entire time between unlock and the opening of the door.
So you’ve gone to the right, reached up, moved to the left, pushed the button and sounded the buzzer. Now the door begins to swing open, but instead of swinging in, it is coming toward you. It grazes your legs as you hightail it out of the way and roll in the only direction you can. To the right. As you go back to the left to enter, it begins to close and you’re hoping you can wheel over the threshold fast enough to not get hit in the back with the closing door.
I know this is what happens because I took some of the kids in my class, put one in a wheelchair and tried it out. The children were absolutely confused about how someone on their own would be able to get in the school quickly. They watched the boy reach for the doorbell, unable to. They yelled at him to get out of the way when the door started swinging open. They knew he was about to get hit in the back with the closing door and jumped in to push him onto the linoleum welcome mat of the school interior.
Anyone who was installing the door should have either known or found out how best to accommodate those in chairs. The teachers who work with many of the children who come to school in chairs work only 25 feet away from that entrance and could have offered excellent advice as to how the door should be installed. If nothing else, they could have gotten the wheelchair from the health room and tried it out before settling on their plans, like the kids and I did. They would have seen their mistakes right away.
I didn’t mention that even if things went swell and the roller got into the building, the mechanism that is supposed to open the door on exit doesn't work either. You push it, hear a click as though the door is disengaging and sit there waiting. I push it every day as I leave. Click, stand, wait, shake my head. That door has become a source of anger, frustration, and a often a reason to laugh at the series of unfortunate thinking that must have preceded its placement.
There were three people working on it this week and we all hoped the list of reasons why it didn’t work would be shortened. Maybe they were moving it to the other side so riders could wheel in without parallel parking type shifting around. Maybe they lowered the doorbell to the office so people in chairs could actually reach it. Maybe they moved the open door button to the same side as the doorbell. Last I checked, nothing changed. I’ll be leaving for work soon, and check it again. If it is fixed, you’ll be the first to know. If not, go check out the monument to the importance of planning ahead.
