Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Washer/Dryer accessibility

[Berrins (Berrins]

In a message dated 12/19/01 3:21:22 AM, tamgoddess [at] attbi.com writes:

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

I won't take it personally.  We all debated long and hard on this issue and 
came to a community consensus on it.  We wanted to get the laundry room onto 
the main floor but, if we did, something else would have had to go.  20 out 
of 24 unit owners had laundry in their houses and several of these folks 
stated that anyone who needed access in the future would be welcome to use 
their personal facilities (until the lift is put into the basement, where the 
laundry facilities are).  None of those who were going to use the CH laundry 
at the time we built required handicap access and none do at present.   We 
recognized the possible reality that someone, someday may require accessible 
laundry facilities and should that occur we will probably put in the lift to 
the basement sooner rather than later, if it isn't in already.
     Keep reading for more explanations...

<< What other activities have you decided are unimportant for everyone to have
access to?>>

None.  This is the only activity that is not yet handicapped accessible.  We 
are not placing values such as "importance" on what is or isn't accessible.  
We are operating from an accessible-as-possible basis, not the other way 
around.  

<< 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! >>

The building inspector had nothing to do with it.  He merely stated that, 
according to his interpretation of the Mass building codes, it was okay for 
us to go ahead with our decision.  Building inspectors actually prefer as 
much handicapped accessibility as possible, never mind what the code requires.

<< 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? >>

Whoever said we weren't sensitized to this issue?  Your assumption has been 
that we weren't.  Our CH is completey accessible with the exception of the 
laundry room, which will be accessible as soon as we put in the lift.  
Accessiblity issues were discussed at every phase of the design process; this 
I know, I was on the design team.  We bought portable ramps so folks can use 
them at their houses for guests. All the houses are sited so that permanent 
ramps can be added later.  One of the counters in the kitchen is lower so 
those in wheel chairs can cook.  Most of the houses either have accessible 
rooms and bathrooms or were built to be easily retrofitted.  The list goes on 
and on.  Sensitivity to this issue was extremely high.

<< 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. 
>>

Lousy cop-out?  That's a value judgement without any knowledge of the process 
by which we came to this decision.  There were many other activities we 
wanted to put on the main floor (teen room, exercise room, sauna, pantry, to 
name a few) but we didn't have space for these either.   Most or all of these 
will eventually be built out in the basement, but not until after we put in 
the lift, which is very high on our list of capital projects.  The laundry 
was the only one put in right away, for those who didn't have laundry 
facilities at home.  In the meantime, as I said above, should anyone ever 
need accessible laundry facilities, several of us have volunteered our homes. 
 It's far from ideal, but it's the best we can do for now.

One alternative we haven't discussed is putting laundry stuff into one of the 
guest rooms should the need arise.  This would require spending some money 
for hook-ups and losing a guest room, but I suppose it could be done.  At 
this point, we don't need to do this.  I hope we get the lift in before we 
need to have this discussion.

We didn't put in the lift right away and we had to keep the square footage of 
the CH down as much as possible because we had to make several severe budget 
cuts due to unforeseen financial burdens.  One example: the building 
inspector decided, well after the initial construction budget was set, that 
we had to build the CH to commercial building standards, adding several tens 
of thousands of dollars to the cost of construction (and mostly not for 
accessibility issues).  This was unforeseen by both the contractor and the 
project coordinator, as some pre-existing cohousing communities in Mass had 
not been required by their building inspectors to build their CH's to this 
expensive a standard (to be honest, I'm glad ours did; we have a safer and 
more solidly constructed building as a result).

So, well into the development process, we were forced to make many hard 
budget decisions.  The laundry room, along with several other activities, got 
cut from the main floor.  We didn't put the laundry room in the basement 
because we wanted to.

That said, don't deny the downside to laundry facilities; noise, smells, 
vibration, and other volatile chemicals that chemically sensitive people may 
not be able to tolerate, such as perfumes from the detergents (possibly 
making much, if not all, of this floor inaccessible to these folks), not to 
mention the occasional flooding.  Yes, rooms can be engineered to minimize 
these effects, but putting the laundry room in the basement is the easiest 
and cheapest solution to these particular problems.

And yet, despite these problems, we would have put the laundry on the main 
floor if we could have.  

Roger Berman
Pathways Cohousing
Northampton, MA

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