Entry tags:
A Masterclass...
... presented by a Holiday Inn Express in Albuquerque, NM.
First, an update. In mid-May my ankle started hurting. I figured it was just a sprain and waited for it to heal. By the last weekend in May it hurt so much that I went to urgent care and discovered that my ankle was broken. They made an appointment with an orthopaedic doctor for June 1st. It turned out I had shattered my ankle so badly that even the pieces were shattered. In the months since it has been slowly getting better to the point where the pieces are now aligned and can begin knitting themselves back into a bone.
In the meantime I've been using various mobility assistance devices, and![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
callicrates and I discovered that our house, while by its open design being somewhat handicapped-friendly, in many ways was not. With the help of an excellent company we're renovating the downstairs to be more accessible to mobility-impaired people, on the theory that if we stay here long enough we'll need it anyway. Hint for those who are buying houses where they have a say in the design -- make sure they have age-in-place considerations.
The renovations began a week ago, and we've had to spend some time in hotels. There are two just around the corner from our house, Marriott Towneplace Suites and a Holiday Inn Express, both of which claimed to have accessibility for mobility-impaired people. We stayed in the Marriott during demolition last week. Last night we stayed in the Holiday Inn, and after both having slept there and used the shower, we've determined we'll spend any future nights in the Marriott. As Andy put it, the Holiday Inn is a Masterclass in how not to design a room for mobility accessibility.
Before making the reservations in each hotel I went and asked to see their showers, since that was our main reason for needing a hotel room once the demolition phase was over. People at both hotels showed me one of their accessible rooms, and while I questioned to myself the placement of the room in the Holiday Inn, both rooms I saw looked like they would work.
I may do a more in-depth critique of the Towneplace Suites, but it was pretty much usable. The Holiday Inn is almost but not quite entirely unusable. The first thing I noticed outside of the Holiday Inn was that the sidewalk is sloped sideways, so the left wheels on my walker were higher than the right. Inside, what I noticed immediately, even with the demonstration room, was that it was at the very end of a long, winding, not very wide hallway about as far from the elevators as was possible. In fact, when I checked in yesterday housekeeping was still working on rooms, and I had to scrape the wall with my walker to get by the cleaning cart.
In the room I was shown by way of demonstration, there was a closet with shelves with no door, which worked perfectly in the Marriott since opening the door would have been difficult. In the room we actually got in the Holiday Inn, there is a standing wardrobe (which, tragically, does not lead to Narnia) with a somewhat finicky door latch. Fortunately I'm able to finagle it, but I doubt that a person in a wheelchair could due to the handle's height and the need for leverage.
The door sill coming in is high and I have to lift my walker to get over it. I don't even want to think about how jarring it would be in a wheelchair. Also, the way they got depth in the roll-in shower was to slope the bathroom up, but the slope is weirdly-shaped, not like a ramp, and Andy said it's a hazard even for people who are not using an assistive device. The sill on the bathroom door is also high.
There is a decent-sized space between the two double beds, but I didn't want to leave my walker there in case Andy needed to get up in the night. My bed was too close to the wall to fit the walker. Andy's bed is near the climate modifier, and the unit made it such that even someone without a device would have trouble getting by to reach the strings that control the blackout curtain. Not that it mattered, since they were broken off so high that even he couldn't reach them.
The shower itself looked good, but there were some problems. For instance, the handles were not labeled at all, and the water took so long to warm up that I was not sure which was the hot for several minutes. Also, while the pan in the shower is nice and deep, the shower head is arranged such that it is impossible to avoid spraying out of the shower and getting the bathroom floor all nice and slippery. Given my balance issues, it was a good thing I had a walker. The shower's missing some part that Andy explained to me, but since it wasn't there, I couldn't envision how it works. I'm not sure that even with the part it would have been possible to avoid getting the floor outside the shower wet. The bench in the shower is wooden with a non-beveled edge that left a mark on my thighs, not to mention hurt.
We're on the third floor, and the buttons to call the elevator are on the far side of the elevator door and flush with the wall *and* not backlit. Andy pointed out that most places have the call buttons where they can be seen as soon as you enter the elevator area. There was also little room between the elevator door, the buttons, and the wall, and I was lucky I could reach it over my walker. I don't know how someone who is shorter than I am or someone in a wheelchair could reach them. Maybe they would just have to wait until someone else on the floor needed to use one.
The Holiday Inn offers free breakfast and the doors into and out of the serving room are wide, but just inside the door in they have a glove dispenser that was placed such that I could barely get my walker by it. The various chafing dishes and the cabinet holding the bagels and bread were at normal height. Again, I'm lucky that I'm tall and use a walker, and thus had no trouble reaching. A sign said there were trays available, but neither Andy nor I found them. Thankfully my walker has a seat, so I was able to put the plate and coffee cup on that and still have both hands to steer with. Not everyone is so lucky.
In all, Andy gave it a C-. I asked what the plus was that kept it from being a D or an F, and he said he reserved the right to adjust it down. He said he doubted the person who had designed the room had ever had mobility impairment, and I tend to agree. To me it looks like they used the ADA measurements for shower dimensions and tossed in a few bars in the shower and around the toilet to make it technically ADA-compliant, but did not think through the actual implications of using a walker or a wheelchair.
The reservation was for last night and tonight since today they're supposed to be replacing the only toilet currently downstairs. I'm toying with the notion of seeing if the Marriott has vacancies in their handicapped-accessible rooms and, if so, cancelling night two at the Holiday Inn. I don't think I will, but that the thought crossed my mind at all is an indication of how untenable the situation is.
First, an update. In mid-May my ankle started hurting. I figured it was just a sprain and waited for it to heal. By the last weekend in May it hurt so much that I went to urgent care and discovered that my ankle was broken. They made an appointment with an orthopaedic doctor for June 1st. It turned out I had shattered my ankle so badly that even the pieces were shattered. In the months since it has been slowly getting better to the point where the pieces are now aligned and can begin knitting themselves back into a bone.
In the meantime I've been using various mobility assistance devices, and
callicrates and I discovered that our house, while by its open design being somewhat handicapped-friendly, in many ways was not. With the help of an excellent company we're renovating the downstairs to be more accessible to mobility-impaired people, on the theory that if we stay here long enough we'll need it anyway. Hint for those who are buying houses where they have a say in the design -- make sure they have age-in-place considerations.The renovations began a week ago, and we've had to spend some time in hotels. There are two just around the corner from our house, Marriott Towneplace Suites and a Holiday Inn Express, both of which claimed to have accessibility for mobility-impaired people. We stayed in the Marriott during demolition last week. Last night we stayed in the Holiday Inn, and after both having slept there and used the shower, we've determined we'll spend any future nights in the Marriott. As Andy put it, the Holiday Inn is a Masterclass in how not to design a room for mobility accessibility.
Before making the reservations in each hotel I went and asked to see their showers, since that was our main reason for needing a hotel room once the demolition phase was over. People at both hotels showed me one of their accessible rooms, and while I questioned to myself the placement of the room in the Holiday Inn, both rooms I saw looked like they would work.
I may do a more in-depth critique of the Towneplace Suites, but it was pretty much usable. The Holiday Inn is almost but not quite entirely unusable. The first thing I noticed outside of the Holiday Inn was that the sidewalk is sloped sideways, so the left wheels on my walker were higher than the right. Inside, what I noticed immediately, even with the demonstration room, was that it was at the very end of a long, winding, not very wide hallway about as far from the elevators as was possible. In fact, when I checked in yesterday housekeeping was still working on rooms, and I had to scrape the wall with my walker to get by the cleaning cart.
In the room I was shown by way of demonstration, there was a closet with shelves with no door, which worked perfectly in the Marriott since opening the door would have been difficult. In the room we actually got in the Holiday Inn, there is a standing wardrobe (which, tragically, does not lead to Narnia) with a somewhat finicky door latch. Fortunately I'm able to finagle it, but I doubt that a person in a wheelchair could due to the handle's height and the need for leverage.
The door sill coming in is high and I have to lift my walker to get over it. I don't even want to think about how jarring it would be in a wheelchair. Also, the way they got depth in the roll-in shower was to slope the bathroom up, but the slope is weirdly-shaped, not like a ramp, and Andy said it's a hazard even for people who are not using an assistive device. The sill on the bathroom door is also high.
There is a decent-sized space between the two double beds, but I didn't want to leave my walker there in case Andy needed to get up in the night. My bed was too close to the wall to fit the walker. Andy's bed is near the climate modifier, and the unit made it such that even someone without a device would have trouble getting by to reach the strings that control the blackout curtain. Not that it mattered, since they were broken off so high that even he couldn't reach them.
The shower itself looked good, but there were some problems. For instance, the handles were not labeled at all, and the water took so long to warm up that I was not sure which was the hot for several minutes. Also, while the pan in the shower is nice and deep, the shower head is arranged such that it is impossible to avoid spraying out of the shower and getting the bathroom floor all nice and slippery. Given my balance issues, it was a good thing I had a walker. The shower's missing some part that Andy explained to me, but since it wasn't there, I couldn't envision how it works. I'm not sure that even with the part it would have been possible to avoid getting the floor outside the shower wet. The bench in the shower is wooden with a non-beveled edge that left a mark on my thighs, not to mention hurt.
We're on the third floor, and the buttons to call the elevator are on the far side of the elevator door and flush with the wall *and* not backlit. Andy pointed out that most places have the call buttons where they can be seen as soon as you enter the elevator area. There was also little room between the elevator door, the buttons, and the wall, and I was lucky I could reach it over my walker. I don't know how someone who is shorter than I am or someone in a wheelchair could reach them. Maybe they would just have to wait until someone else on the floor needed to use one.
The Holiday Inn offers free breakfast and the doors into and out of the serving room are wide, but just inside the door in they have a glove dispenser that was placed such that I could barely get my walker by it. The various chafing dishes and the cabinet holding the bagels and bread were at normal height. Again, I'm lucky that I'm tall and use a walker, and thus had no trouble reaching. A sign said there were trays available, but neither Andy nor I found them. Thankfully my walker has a seat, so I was able to put the plate and coffee cup on that and still have both hands to steer with. Not everyone is so lucky.
In all, Andy gave it a C-. I asked what the plus was that kept it from being a D or an F, and he said he reserved the right to adjust it down. He said he doubted the person who had designed the room had ever had mobility impairment, and I tend to agree. To me it looks like they used the ADA measurements for shower dimensions and tossed in a few bars in the shower and around the toilet to make it technically ADA-compliant, but did not think through the actual implications of using a walker or a wheelchair.
The reservation was for last night and tonight since today they're supposed to be replacing the only toilet currently downstairs. I'm toying with the notion of seeing if the Marriott has vacancies in their handicapped-accessible rooms and, if so, cancelling night two at the Holiday Inn. I don't think I will, but that the thought crossed my mind at all is an indication of how untenable the situation is.