Cohousing-L Mailing List: Washer/Dryer accessibility

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

I have to say something opinionated here. Something I feel very strongly, so
please don't take it as a personal rebuke.

What other activities have you decided are unimportant for everyone to have
access to? The building inspector doesn't live there. He is the lowest
common denominator, and should not be the one who decides who gets to
participate in your community!

I may sound like a broken record, but I will continue to say this as long as
people are building inaccessible common houses. If you can't be sensitized
to this, who can? If not now, when?

And don't think that laundry is unimportant. You never know how people
connect. We all do it in our own way. No mobility-impaired person will ever
have the joy of getting caught up in work at home, and coming back to your
common house to find their laundry already folded.

I don't mean to offend. I really don't. But this is just a lousy cop-out.

-- 
Elizabeth Stevenson
420 T Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

916.441.2299
tamgoddess [at] home.com

> In a message dated 12/18/01 10:57:23 PM, tamgoddess [at] attbi.com writes:
> 
> << I'm curious. Do all of you with laundry in the basement have elevators or a
> walk-in basement? If it's not accessible, you're not ADA compliant. >>
> 
> No elevator or walk-in access; in this regard we are not ADA compliant.
> However, our city building inspector, noted for being relatively strict (he
> was the one who required us to build to public building standards, when other
> Common Houses in Mass. are not) allowed us to do this.  Laundry was not
> considered a public use issue.
> 
> We did build the CH with framing and a space to put in a lift to the basement
> sometime in the future.  We will need a lift to do any other activity there
> that is not being done on the main floor.
> 
> Roger 
> Pathways Cohousing
> Northampton, MA

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l