Here's what they are talking about
Posted on 05/22/2012 4:32:53 AM PDT by IbJensen
Last week, news was made as today’s deadline approached for commercial and municipal swimming pool owners to install means, by which disabled swimmers could enter the nation’s swimming pools. It is the kind of regulation that would make a great punch line for the conservative version of the Daily Show, if conservatives were that funny. The Obama Administration has recently construed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Standards for Accessible Design to apply to the act of swimming.
Today, this regulation was supposed to go into effect, opening up the owners to $100,000 fines as well as trial lawyer liability. However, thanks to the kindness of the Justice Department, existing pools now have until January 2013 to comply. “Newly constructed or altered places of public accommodation, commercial facilities and state and local government facilities” operating swimming pools will now be required to install permanent structures that lower physically disabled patrons into the pool. These establishments may also be forced to remove “accessibility barriers.”
The premise of this entire concept — allowing bureaucrats in DC to tell Americans how to run their swimming pools is more outrageous than the overly scandalous title to this article. Purchase and operation of these mechanical arms or “elevators” that lower people into the pool cost northward of $10k.
The fact that the Justice Department and the Obama Administration are allowing a regulation like this to go into effect demonstrates two important points — first, democrats are the party of over-regulation and second, democrats are not friends to poor people.
Regulations.
Democrats have spent the better part of the past six years demonizing republicans for seeking less regulations. To be sure, many regulations are necessary. But there is two sides to the regulatory coin and the dark side is a government that is so large and intrusive that it tells us how our toilets will flush, what light bulbs to put in our kitchen and what our community swimming pools will look like. It is academic arrogance by both parties that allow people living in Washington DC to know better than people in their own communities.
This is the type of regulatory nightmare that hurts small businesses like hotel chains. It is the exact opposite of what a government should be implementing during a recession. In fact, many pools throughout the U.S. may now have to shut down.
The poor.
More importantly, this type of act showcases how out-of-step the Administration is with the American people. Growing up in a lower-middle class family, summer time was a time where my mother took my brothers and I to public pools for recreation and to save money by not running the air conditioning at home. In fact, for many poor people throughout every city south of Chicago, a community or municipal pool is the only social recreation that the poorest among Americans can afford.
Many hotels will be shutting down their pools until they can afford to install the robotic limb. Not only does this kind of regulatory overreach hurt small businesses, it hurts the poorest amongst us going into a very hot summer.
For all of the demagoguery we here about republicans being the party of millionaires and billionaires and democrats caring for the poor, no millionaires or billionaires will be required to alter their pools. It will mainly be poor minorities in the south that will feel this kind of heat from the administration.
Liberals (both Rs and Ds) want more regulations, but there is a line that goes too far and the Administration is stomping all over it. It won’t be rich-white-Republicans that will feel the Administration’s pressure on this one, it will be lower class minorities that are hurt the most. And that, is something to be ashamed of.
I’m thinking that getting in the pool shouldn’t be so hard. Its gettin’ out that might be a bit challenging...
All of the pools I’ve used, including my own, has steps that gradually allow the person to enter the pool at the water’s lowest point. The steps are likewise easy to walk out of the pool.
This contraption is merely the product of a bureaucrat’s mind to show his superiors that the has accomplished something this decade. Another damned boondoggle.
It really won’t matter anymore. When O gets re-elected, all the disabled will be killed off. Then we won’t have to worry about spending money on ramps, and lifts and crap like that.
Compliance may be a bit difficult down at the old rock quarry.
15.8.2* Swimming Pools. At least TWO accessible means of entry shall be provided for each public use and common use swimming pool...
http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/html/adaag.htm#15.8 Swimming Pools, Wading Pools, and Spas
A15.8.5.7 Operation. Pool lifts must be capable of unassisted operation from both the deck and water levels. This will permit a person to call the pool lift when the pool lift is in the opposite position. It is extremely important for a person who is swimming alone to be able to call the pool lift when it is in the up position so he or she will not be stranded in the water for extended periods of time awaiting assistance. The requirement for a pool lift to be independently operable does not preclude assistance from being provided.
A15.8.6.1 Sloped Entries. Personal wheelchairs and mobility devices may not be appropriate for submerging in water. Some may have batteries, motors, and electrical systems that when submerged in water may cause damage to the personal mobility device or wheelchair or may contaminate the pool water. Providing an aquatic wheelchair made of non-corrosive materials and designed for access into the water will protect the water from contamination and avoid damage to personal wheelchairs or other mobility aids.
http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/html/adaag.htm#A15.8.5.7
Steps for a person that can’t walk. Yep, that’s how the gov. works.
Under Obama, NOTHING exceeds the federal government’s authority!
“This is just the camel’s nose under the tent.”
One government body I know of has an ADA compliance handbook that is 236 pages long, and covers EVERYTHING, from kitchens to toilets to the size of text on readable panels.
Until someone drives their electric wheelchair down the ramp and ZAP! It'll be the pool owner who gets sued for someone else's stupidity. They'll also get sued when the disabled person gets injured on the lowering device. More suits will be brought because someone got past the removed barriers and drowns. I can just see liberals demanding such regulations at city run natural swimming holes along rivers and lakes.
Here's what they are talking about
When I watched it, the handicapped man was able to take himself from the wheelchair and put himself into the pool. I’m guessing that his/her assistant or family member could also do if the handicapped person had limited use of the upper body also.
A bunch of metal there -in some areas that’s a ‘scrap-metal’ thieves easy pickins’....
So, how is it hate or disrespect to suggest that a RAMP is OK.
The powered mechanical lifts are probably dangerous to everybody ~ I'm thinking of that event in the movie "Eating Raoul" where everybody lined up around the inside of the big hot tub fell over like petals on a wilted flower when the electric line fell across them. You get that same effect with a short in an electrical device in water you know.
Then, if that's all you have ~ an electric powered lift ~ how do the handicapped get out of the pool when the power fails? Do they perhaps tread water until the firedepartment arrives?
Frankly, this new rule is not thought out.
” Bush Sr pushed this piece of crap Federal law ADA and liberal Martha supposedly was pushing him on it.
This type of dangerous and destructive law uses the words ‘reasonable accommodations’ which allows any administration to come in and bankrupt not just businesses but local governments.”
“reasonable”
I saw one of these abominations newly installed in a relatively new Marriott hotel (brand and location intentionally not mentioned) last week. I stood and stared at the contraption. I am an electrical engineer and I examined the device pretty closely. I decided not to go into the pool because if the pool was full and there were enough people in the pool it might be possible for water to enter the sealed junction box on the “arm of death”. If the gasket leaks, look for people in the pool dying to satisfy this new mandate for the disabled.
I wonder who is making a fortune off this mandate?
If you need this device to get in the pool, you don’t BELONG in the pool!!
The ones I’ve used are not electrical. They are like a lever type hoist. They work really well. Ramps are great. They get you to the edge of a pool, then no further. It is easy to get a person tnto a pool. It is very difficult to lift a grown person out of the water and into their chair. They are very heavy, wet and slippery.
Most pools I’ve been to are ground level and really don’t need ramps.
Ya! And I they can’t get into a vehicle, they shouldn’t drive, or if they can’t get into a house they should live on the street, or if they can’t get into a restaurant, they should never eat out, or or or???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.