Hotel accessibility is like a box of chocolates……

Even with the ADA in place, providing a minimum requirement for accessibility, it still never ceases to amaze me that each ‘ADA’ hotel room we encounter, is so very different.  My husband Bill, who uses a manual wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury, is a travel agent and knows this issue all to well.  Our last three hotel stays truly exemplify the fact that you just never know what you are going to get.  Thus, the inspiration for this blog post.

We stayed in Washington, DC for a quick get-away over Thanksgiving and had the opportunity to stay in two separate hotels.  The first accessible hotel room boasted large amounts of space, both in the room and the bathroom.  The room we received had a tub with tub seat and plethora of grab bars.  Bill, who could access the controls to turn on the water, and could transfer onto the flip-down tub seat, had difficulty with reaching across the tub to pull the tub seat down and, our favorite, could not reach the hand-held shower on the opposite short shower wall.  We find that this is a typical scenario in many ‘ADA’ hotel rooms.  Even though it is on a slide, Bill is at the mercy of someone placing the handheld closer to him in the shower, and then hoping that housekeeping won’t put it back on the slide at the top after cleaning the room.
In this second hotel room, we encountered a roll-in shower with flip-down seat and once again, a plethora of grab bars.  Bill was once again able to easily transfer from his wheelchair to the bench, but this required that he roll his manual wheelchair into the shower area, and then try to push his chair outside of the shower area once he was seated on the shower bench.  Bill sustained a C5-C6 incomplete spinal cord injury, which resulted in quadriplegia.  Pushing his chair outside of the shower area and then attempting to retrieve it was challenging for his balance, as it required that he hold the front grab bar with his left hand (which only has tenodesis grasp) and rotate his trunk to the right while reaching to the side and behind him with his right arm, which is challenging for his sitting balance, and almost caused him to fall off the shower seat.   Even if he were to be able to do this independently, he now has his front wheelchair wheels within the wet shower area.  Adding another layer of challenge is the handheld shower unthinkingly placed at the top of the slide bar.
For our recent trip to the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, we once again encountered an ‘ADA’ room with a tub.  We were given the option of a tub with a stand-alone shower seat, or a roll-in shower with a stand-alone shower seat.   Things that make you go hmmm……    Bill made the choice of a tub with stand-alone tub seat, as this was the lesser of two evils.  A roll-in shower sounds great, but using a roll-in shower with a stand alone shower seat is dangerous for Bill as the seat may slide when he is attempting to transfer to/from his wheelchair and it may tip over in the shower if he were to have a muscle spasm.  His thoughts—less area for the stand-alone shower seat to move in a tub than in a large roll-in shower.  Neither was ideal, but we are used to ‘making-do’ in hotels.  Upon making this decision, the hotel changed their mind on the choices and stated that by law we are supposed to be in the room with the roll-in shower.  As I educated the staff about ADA, and the areas of concern with both of their ‘ADA’ rooms, miraculously the ‘hotel engineers’ located a tub bench that can be fastened to the tub!  Ok, so this is a bit better, still no chocolate covered cherry, but better.  As they arrive to the room and we all convene in the bathroom, the first engineer says to the second engineer, “where does it go?”  I politely take over and educate the engineers about the placement of the tub bench to best meet Bill’s needs.  Even though the tub bench allows for increased ease of transfer and increased safety versus a stand along shower seat, the tub seat is very hard and uncomfortable to transfer onto (Bill has sensation below the level of his injury) and he still is at the mercy of the handheld shower being lowered from the top of the slide bar.

Please note:  tub bench was height adjusted and was positioned to accommodate Bill’s long legs swinging over the tub.   The picture actually makes the tub look longer than it is; Handheld in picture is 20” in front of tub seat, which allows Bill to access it when it is in a lowered position.  Also note in the picture that the plumbing under the lav is not covered/insulated.

This blog is a look at how these specific ‘ADA’ hotel bathrooms did not meet Bill’s needs; but what about the many other patrons that will use these spaces?  These bathrooms will be utilized by a number of people of different ages and different ability levels.  A universal design approach would allow for meeting the needs of the majority of patrons that stay within these hotels.  This would not only create a better user experience, it would provide for an added layer of safety and potentially less liability overall for the hotel.

Perhaps we can be very forward thinking and progressive and say, why shouldn’t all guest rooms in a hotel be universally designed? This way it won’t be a matter of saying “we need an accessible room” and hope to get one that we can ‘make-do’ in.  Perhaps…….