Eugene, Oregon, works toward better accessibility

From The Register-Guard:

Mereth Dunn-Estey sometimes finds maneuvering around store aisles in her motorized scooter difficult. The 48-year-old Eugene resident said the aisles often are built wide enough to accommodate scooters and wheelchairs. But instead of keeping the aisles accessible, stores pack them with products and promotions that extend beyond the shelves. And the turning space at the end of aisles also can be an issue, she said.

“Having room to move around is the main thing I need,” she said. “Sometimes I get frustrated when I can’t figure out a way around the aisle myself. If I have to wait for help, I’ll just leave. And if they aren’t helping me, then I figure they don’t want my money.”

Dunn-Estey’s problems are what organizers of a new nonprofit are trying to help people with disabilities — and businesses — avoid.

The Seattle-based organization, dubbed BluePath, educates businesses about accessibility and encourages businesses to become more accessible by offering them a way to market themselves to the disabled community.

The organization either has businesses complete an accessibility self-assessment or it sends a BluePath member to survey a business to determine if it’s accessible. When businesses are found accessible, they are eligible for membership in the nonprofit.

Members are listed on the BluePath Web site, which began operating at full capacity two weeks ago and includes a directory of accessible businesses.

BluePath organizers say the directory is a way for businesses to market to a demographic that nationwide includes 54 million adults with about $220 billion in disposable income.

In Oregon, about 531,000 people over the age of 21 have a disability, according to census data, and about 63,000 people younger than 21. But with baby boomers aging and retiring, the number of Americans with disabilities or who need some type of accommodation is going to grow larger, said Gene Organ, Oregon’s BluePath coordinator.

“Much of the concerns with accessibility for people with disabilities also apply to seniors — being able to push a button to open the door benefits seniors as well as people with disabilities,” he said.

BluePath operates out of the University of Washington’s department of rehabilitation medicine. But Don Brandon, BluePath founder and director, said it was piloted in Eugene, with the first businesses becoming members Oct. 1.

So far, 21 Eugene and five Springfield business sites are members of BluePath, and Organ said at least 20 more local businesses are waiting to have their applications processed.

The organization, which includes one paid coordinator, has an annual operating budget of $70,000, Brandon said, and is currently active in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

Currently, BluePath membership is free, but in the next few years an $80 to $90 annual fee will be instated, Brandon said.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses to be accessible to people with disabilities, many businesses are confused by the law and find its requirements daunting, Brandon said, adding that the law’s impact hasn’t been as great as originally envisioned.

“When the ADA became law, I thought the world would be round instead of flat,” he said.

Brandon and Organ said it is difficult for any business to be 100 percent accessible because so many forms of disability exist.

Common architectural barriers include doors with knobs that can be hard for some customers to turn, doors that are heavy, narrow aisles, lips on doorway thresholds, and bathrooms without grab bars in the stalls or an adequate turning radius for wheelchairs. Most of these problems are minor and inexpensive fixes for businesses, Organ said.

Before joining BluePath, St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County made some of the quick fixes at its locations. After a BluePath member assessed St. Vincent de Paul’s various locations, St. Vincent widened aisles at its stores, lowered mirrors to allow people using wheelchairs to see better, made sure all restroom doors had handles, and changed door handles from knobs to levers, said Charley Harvey, associate executive director at St. Vincent de Paul.

“The visit and the changes were a call to attention about the number of people who are disabled,” Harvey said. “In general, people don’t think there are that many people out there with disabilities, but there are.”

Adequate parking at businesses also can be a problem for people with disabilities.

Sue Harnly, co-owner of the Eugene Coffee Company, provided an accessible parking space at her business.

But she didn’t know that she needed a sign mounted into the ground marking the spot until a BluePath member did an assessment of her Chambers Street coffee shop.

Harnly said she became aware of accessibility standards working with people with disabilities for 25 years at the Hilyard Recreation Center. Alhough small, the coffee shop, a BluePath member, has adequate space for people to move about its light wood floors, and also has low countertops easy for people using wheelchairs or scooters to reach, Harnly said.

These features are reasons why Dunn-Estey remains a loyal customer at the coffee shop.

“It’s extremely easy to get around,” she said. “I can park my scooter, and there’s room for people to go around me without having to move anything. I don’t feel like I am in the way or creating a disturbance.”

Most businesses built after 1990 — or those that have undergone significant renovations — typically have the basic features needed to be accessible, Organ said.

But even in those buildings, Organ said, accessibility can be improved — which is exactly what Jody Hall, general manager of the Eugene Hilton, learned.

The Hilton was generally deemed accessible, and gained BluePath membership, because of work done in past renovations.

But while completing the assessment with a BluePath member, Hall found that the Hilton’s doors were too heavy and learned how he could take accessibility to the next level.

“They came in and walked the place top to bottom,” he said. “I wasn’t that knowledgeable. They explained why things here were built the way they were to be accessible. The experience was very educational.”

The Hilton has 15 rooms deemed accessible for people with disabilities that include wider space between the two beds, lower peep-holes and door locks and accessible bathroom facilities.

But Hall said he learned, for example, that even in the accessible rooms the thermostats on the walls could be moved lower.

Other ways the Hilton could be more accessible would require bigger changes, Hall said, included adding a lift to the swimming pool, a ramp in the back of the building, and adjusting existing ramp grades to make them accessible to even more people.

The BluePath Web site allows consumers to rate accessibility at BluePath businesses. Local business owners and operators say they are eager to receive that information.

“The feedback system is incredibly valuable,” Harnly said. “We may be up to code, but that does not mean that we are completely accessible. The feedback will raise our awareness.”

In addition to offering information about architectural barriers, BluePath also seeks to teach companies’ employees basic etiquette for interacting with people with different kinds of disabilities, Organ said.

Many employees don’t realize that using the term “handicapped” or treating someone differently because they have a disability can be offensive, he said.

BluePath offers printed material, videos, in-person training and a technical assistance center to help businesses get it right, architecturally and through employee-customer relationships, he said.

“Attitudes can be a problem where people treat you less as an adult,” said Organ, who uses a wheelchair. “The term handicapped gets in the way — that’s a term thought to be gratuitous. It’s more of the ‘You poor thing let me fix you.’ I am a person with a disability, and that’s all.”