April 2010

Pennsylvania Parks & Recreation Conference

“What is Your Inclusion IQ?” was the title of the sessions Pennsylvania Parks and Recreation Society members attended in March at Seven Springs Resort in Champion, PA.  Hard-working parks and recreation professionals, and a couple of ADA Coordinators, from all over the Commonwealth attended the session.  One of the most interesting discussions was in regards to how the ADA title II program access test applies to Pennsylvania agencies.  Some in the audience were from large systems with more than one hundred playgrounds, and some were from small systems with fewer than 10 playgrounds.  Demonstrating its Inclusion Quotient (IQ), the audience applied this test very well to agencies of differing size.

Batavia Park District

Batavia Park District has retained RAC for the mandated system-wide access audit of parks and facilities, as well as the drafting of a transition plan subsequent to the audit.  Park District Executive Director Mike Clark, recipient of the IPRA 2009 Fellow Award at the 2010 Illinois Parks & Recreation Conference, said that “Access is very important to the District.  We recognize the legal requirement here, but more importantly, we want all of our sites to be able to be used by all of our residents.”  The work also includes a plan review at Braeburn Park and Preserve, a site jointly operated by the Batavia Park District and the Geneva Park District.

E-Mail Bag

Questions like the one discussed below are occurring more and more frequently in public parks and recreation agencies.  Let’s make no mistake about it…at RAC we encourage public parks and recreation agencies to not only meet the minimum requirements for access and inclusion, but to exceed the minimum requirements. 

Question: We have a person who wants to go swimming and has a colostomy bag.  Has anyone ever dealt with this or do you have a policy in your facility about this issue?

RAC Background: We thought long and hard about this.  The public parks and recreation agency that is asking the question is in Illinois and this question was asked by Terri Smith of Water Designs in Salt Lake City.  Obviously, pool maintenance and patron safety are factors to be weighed.  But the ADA makes it clear a pool operator cannot make a decision based on a fear or suspicion, but only on objective fact.  With that in mind, here is the answer we sent to Terri.

RAC answer: Here are some thoughts.  We suggest this is a good discussion between staff, the participant, and the swimmer’s doctor or physician’s assistant.  Simply explain that the agency has never adopted a policy one way or the other and ask to sit down and talk about the issue.  Start by asking questions about colostomy and focus on bag and seal integrity.  In our opinion that’s really what this is about.

We did some research and some successful tactics used included:

First, limit swim time to 30 to 40 minutes.  Water changes the wax seal around the ostomy and it loses its effectiveness.  The swimmer must bring a second bag and be able to install it after swimming.

Second, swimmers should wear baggy suits and cover both the ostomy (the opening) and the bag.

Third, on some websites there were concerns about pool water infecting the bather with a colostomy.  That’s an issue to discuss with the swimmer.

We did talk with John Rossetti at the Illinois Department of Public Health.  He said this issue does arise regularly.  He stopped short of saying a person with a colostomy should be banned from a public pool.  He tried to draw a parallel between banning a person with bandages from the pool.  But I don’t think the medical community sees a colostomy bag and the ostomy itself as a bandage…it is a tight seal.

Terri, I think that after an interview and an assessment of the status of the bag, a pool could, and I emphasize could, ban a swimmer with a colostomy if and only if it feels the bag or the ostomy lack integrity and that a leak is likely.  Absent that likelihood (which of course must be supported by history or facts, not a hunch), let the swimmer in.  But I’d never, ever recommend a person be banned without at least a face-to-face meeting and consideration of a number of alternatives (like the first two above).

Finally, someone smarter than us about aquatics ought to talk about cheek wash and compare daily cheek wash loads to the typical amount of fecal matter that leaks when the integrity of a colostomy bag or seal is breached.  That’s above our pay grade, but we would love to hear the discussion.

Bartlett Park District

The Bartlett Park District has retained RAC to draft a transition plan for the District.  Bartlett was one of the first RAC clients for an access audit in 2008.  We are looking forward to working with Rita Fletcher and the staff at the District.

ADA Roundtable

For the IPRA Facility Management Section, on May 7 RAC President John McGovern will speak about the application of the ADA to everything related to a community center.  We’ll talk about everything from accessible parking to service counters to ice and soda machines, as well as programs conducted in the community center.  Interested in attending?  Contact Matt Saviello at Fox Valley Park District at 630/859-8606 or msaviello@fvpd.net.

Why Should Our Agency Follow Regulations and the Final Guidelines?

We had an interesting discussion with an architect and project manager last month in regards to a newly constructed facility in Illinois.  The architect, rightly so, noted that the Illinois Accessibility Code (the IAC is a final regulation adopted by the State) and the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG is a final guideline that is the subject of an implementing regulation issued by the US Department of Justice) governs.  The IAC was last updated in 1997 and ADAAG was issued July 26, 1991.  Clearly, your agency must follow these final regulations.

However, in 2004 the US Access Board published another final guideline updating ADAAG.  Known as the ADA/ABA Guidelines, it is more current and addresses some areas that were left without guidance in 1991.  It awaits the issuance of an implementing regulation by the US Department of Justice.

Our firm regularly advises clients to follow the 2004 ADA/ABA Guideline, for several reasons.

First, it addresses more areas (for example, playgrounds, pools, golf courses, fitness centers, and sports fields and courts) that are of interest to public parks and recreation areas than does ADAAG and IAC.

Second, it is fresh, and addresses changes in technology and some improvements in how the built environment is addressed.  Why wouldn’t you want to use the most current guidance?

Third, the ADA/ABA Guidelines fill in some of the holes from ADAAG.  For example, the ADA/ABA Guidelines address the actual location of a toilet paper dispenser in an accessible toilet stall, while ADAAG and IAC are silent on this.  In an informal poll of toilet stall users, all agreed that having the toilet paper dispenser at a location that could be conveniently reached was a high priority.

In summary, it is not enough to just follow the ADAAG and IAC minimums.  Doing so leaves dozens of facilities and sites with no access guidance.  We strongly urge that agencies follow the regulations, and the 2004 ADA/ABA Guidelines.