I can hear people in wheelchairs in Hartford, Conn., applauding all the way up here in Massachusetts--yesterday, I posted about how the new Marriott in town was resisting making its bathrooms comply with state codes to keep them handicap-accessible. An update, from today's Hartford Courant:
The developer of the new Marriott hotel at Adriaen's Landing must
redesign bathrooms in 17 nearly completed handicapped-accessible rooms
to meet state code and ensure that people in wheelchairs are able to
use the toilets, a state panel ruled Tuesday morning.
"We've
got an oops on the table here and I think that ... the goal here is to
remedy the situation that brought us to the hearing today," said John
Butkus, chairman of the codes and standards committee of the Department
of Public Safety, in reference to the design flaw that caused the
compliance issue. "The gold standard is the state building code."
Someday, I'd like to rent a wheelchair for 24 hours and try to negotiate a convention, hotel, etc., just to see for myself what it's like. If we all did that (including those who build hotels, convention centers, etc.), problems like this would probably become very, very rare.