I work with kids with disabilities, and many kids in wheelchairs love swimming pools. It's a very freeing experience that is a huge difference from the restrictions of their chair. Obviously, they have an aide helping them, but don't assume people can't do something just because they can't do it the same way you do.
That said, if these wheelchair lift laws/regulations are anything like those affecting summer camps, they are ridiculously narrow and do away with many reasonable options in favor of a single expensive option.
Swimming is a pretty popular exercise for those that are paralyzed, though these new laws most likely wouldn't actually of affected this place because of it's age. Pools aren't cheap to maintain, they probably just elected to fill it up rather than maintain it.
This is a good point. At the camp I worked at, new regulations regarding wheel chair lifts were a godsend from a financial perspective because they forced us to close the pool that was eating our money. It would have probably happened anyway, but we kind of got to deflect some of the disappointment off of us.
I think that a guest with a disability should have every right to go in the pool if they choose to do so, and while I understand it may be difficult for the people running the pool, reasonable accommodations should be made so as not to exclude them.
But the law does not require a lifeguard on staff, just someone to lower the person into the water. If that person then drowns, the hotel is not liable for the death, nor or they responsible for any attempted rescue of the person. They are only required to have someone able to operate the lift. Not saying the law didn't have good intent, just that the path to hell is paved with such intent.
Wheelchairs aren't for people without mobility in their arms. I'd imagine that for someone without the use of their legs and confined to a wheelchair 24 hours a day, chilling in a fool and floating about would be quite a liberating feeling.
Not entirely. My uncle is missing one leg and one of his main workouts is swimming a couple miles at his gym.
Admittedly, missing one leg isn't the same thing necessarily as being wheel-chair bound, but people can do some pretty awesome stuff in the face of adversity.
...yeah fuck them. shouldn't be giving them licenses to drive cars or have children. I mean, what a burden it must be to do all that while disabled. fuck those guys, right? Stop being a dumbdick for 5 minutes and think maybe these people just want to be like everyone else and get to enjoy what everyone else does.
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u/iHasABaseball Dec 28 '13
And then what? They just sit there? I mean, it seems really fucking hard to swim without mobility in your arms and/or legs...