A Love-Hate Relationship: The Ups and Downs of Elevators

Primitive elevators have been used since third century BC. These elevators were run by water wheel, animal, or even human power. By the mid-nineteenth century, elevators were steam operated, and used for transporting materials in factories and mines. In 1853, Elisha Otis invented a safety device that prevents an elevator from taking a plunge if a supporting cable were to fail. In that same year, Otis established an elevator manufacturing company and eight years later, he patented the steam elevator. In 1857, the Otis Brothers installed the first public (steam powered) elevator in E.W. Haughtwhat and Company's five story department store in Manhattan. In the 1870's, steam powered elevators began to be phased out; they were replaced by hydraulic machines. However, by the end of the 19th century, electric elevators were introduced; the first one was built by Werner von Siemens of Germany, in 1880. Alexander Miles of the United States patented the electric elevator on October 11, 1887.

The design of the elevator dramatically improved over a short span of time, and I am so thankful that all the kinks of the elevator were worked out before my time; I can now experience the benefit of having an elevator available to me in most buildings that have multiple floors. However, there is a problem: the key word being "most". Not every building with multiple floors has an elevator to create equal access to people of all abilities. This does not just include older building that were constructed many years ago (and therefore grandfathered in), but newer buildings as well. 

In section 4.1.3 of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) under Exemption One it states, "Elevators are not required in facilities that are less than three stories or that have less than 3000 square feet per story, unless the building is a shopping center, a shopping mall, or the professional office of a health care provider, or another type of facility as determined by the Attorney General." The irony of this is, while the ADA was written to improve the lives and accessibility for those with disabilities, this act also allows architects/businesses to discriminate against many persons with disabilities. As a person who uses a wheelchair, I am unable to utilize the stairs and therefore, cannot reach an upper or lower floor without an elevator. Why should it be okay to give the majority of society the right to access all parts of a building, but not give another person that same opportunity just because that person cannot walk up the stairs? 

I have encountered many buildings that are not equipped with an elevator and therefore, do not allow for equal access. This is most common in condos, motels and hotels. I am frustrated when I cannot cannot enter a friend's condo. However, what about a resident in a wheelchair who wants to take her new neighbor cookies, who recently moved in the condo above her own, but cannot do so as there is no way for her to access the second floor? Would it not be rude for her to call up her neighbor and say, "I have cookies for you, but you have to come get them." 

It is also frustrating when my family cannot stay at any given hotel simply due to lack of accessibility. Many hotels will locate all of their accessible rooms on the ground floor, so it is assumed there is no need for an elevator. However, many hotels only provide one bed in accessible rooms, while providing the option of two in others.What about the family of four, with a son in a wheelchair, who cannot stay in the handicap room at their preferred hotel because that room only has one bed, so they would like to rent a room (that happens to be on the second floor) with two beds? Is it right to tell this family they have to rent two rooms just because their son is in a wheelchair? 

Unfortunately, inaccessibility (with regards to elevators or lack there of), does not stop here. The greatest irony that I have found is if I (or any other person in a wheelchair) were to visit the Bellingham School District's Special Education Office; a meeting would have to be prearranged as this office is on the second floor of Roeder. Roeder is a historic building here in Bellingham and therefore, is grandfathered; this building is not required to be accessible. It is also under three stories (and each floor is under 3,000 square feet), so to my understanding, would not have to have an elevator anyways. None the less, the special education office is on the second floor. Whoever planned this out is completely ignorant to the fact that there are students in the Bellingham School District that are in special education who are unable to access stairs. However, there are not just special education offices on the second floor, and not everyone who cannot access the stairs is in special education, Bellingham School District's problem of inaccessibility would not be solved by just moving the special education office to the ground floor. Now, this would solve the ironic problem of students with disabilities not being able to get to the special education office, but in turn, it would introduce a new problem. This would now be a stereotypical problem; not all students with physical disabilities are in special education. If the special education office was moved to the ground floor of Roeder, then all offices should be made accessible to all students, disabled or not, Roeder does not necessary need to be made accessible, but as a public school district, Bellingham is obligated to give an equal, but not separate opportunity with all aspects of education. If Roeder cannot be remodeled to accommodate all students and their parents, then the school district should move their offices to meet this crucial courtesy.  

What about a building that has an elevator, but that elevator does not allow access to every part of the building (that the rest of the public can get to via stairs)? The YMCA here in Bellingham is the perfect example. The YMCA is located in an older building; however, it has been remodeled since the ADA was written. The elevator does not allow access to the upstairs party room. I found this out when I went to two of my friend's birthday party. When their mom rented the room at the Y, she explained that her daughters had a friend in a wheelchair attending the party. The lady who booked the party said it was no problem, and that she would place us in the party room on the ground floor as the room on the second floor was not accessible. When we arrived, we found out that someone else wanted the room on the ground, so we were bumped to the lesser of the two room; we ended up in the room that was up a long flight of stairs. We explored the building. The elevator goes to the second floor dressing rooms; on the other side of the dressing rooms is that party room, but a wall stands in the way. When the Y was upgraded, why were they able to get away with not putting a hallway to that room? Another thing that we encountered at the YMCA is that the only way down to the rock wall is via a skinny staircase; there is no elevator. The ironic thing is that there is an adapted harness that people with disabilities can use when climbing.     

Even though elevators are an amazing tool for providing equal access, they can be quite a pain and I try to avoid them at all cost. When I sign up for college classes, I try my best to not take a class that would involve me using an elevator. I will try my best to create future schedules that are not located on an upper floor of the environmental science building. In this building, there are two elevators (one at each end of the building). The elevator closest to the main door goes to the half and whole floors (there are doors that open on both sides of this elevator). The one that is on the other side of the building only gives access to the whole floors; this is the elevator that I use and will continue to use, even though it is out of the way, until I have to get to a half floor. This is due to the main elevator trapping people inside more than an elevator should; I heard of two different occasions of this occurring during my first year at WWU. I have also had my own experiences with this elevator; during my third quarter at WWU, there were many times that I sat waiting for the elevator, and then was told that it had not been working all morning or even all week. After a couple of times of being late to class, I just started using the elevator at the other end of the building. I am thankful for that second elevator; if it did not exist, I would have missed many classes. I would have also had to travel to another building to use the bathroom (as this building's accessible bathrooms are in the basement).
Along with the main elevator in the environmental building, I also try to not have to use the elevators in Arntzen Hall. They are older, and I am pretty sure they are not calibrated as often as they should be. Twice this past quarter, the elevator (on the same wall/side as Subway) hit the bottom floor hard, bounced around, and then the doors did not open for at least thirty seconds. This was quite painful and nerve racking. Both my mom and I called the maintenance department (on separate days), as this happened to her as well! I heard others talking about it too, so it could not have happened just a couple of times. I am hoping that the elevators are now fixed, as the bathrooms are in the basement, and the Political Science Offices are on the fourth floor.    

I also try to avoid taking classes on upper floors when I would only have ten minutes in between those classes, as it is most likely that I would be late to class if I had to use an elevator. When I signed up for my classes last winter quarter, I picked a communications class and an economics class that were scheduled ten minutes apart. I thought it was going to work perfect for me, as both classes were located on the main/bottom floor of their respective buildings (both of which are located on the south end of campus). Before classes began, I mapped out my route to make sure I could make it to economics on time after leaving my communications class. From the communications building to the business building, I found that it only took me about four minutes. Perfect! However, when the quarter started, I learned that after the first two weeks of my comm class, we were no longer going to meet in the large class room on the ground floor; we were going to be split up into smaller groups, and meet on the second floor. This means I would now have to access my class via the elevator. This situation probably would have been okay because there were two elevators -- which typically means the wait is not too long (no more than two minutes) -- however, for the first half of the quarter, the second elevator was broken! Okay, I know that because there are two elevators and one was broken, I still could get to class, but when there is only one elevator for five floors, the wait dramatically increases. One day, I waited seven minutes for the elevator. This is the longest I have ever waited for an elevator that works. Needless to say, I was late to my next class. For the majority of the quarter, I barely made it to class on time, and when the only place that you can sit is in the front of the classroom, everyone watches you arrive and get settled. My suggestion would be for professors to indicate in the catalog entry the locations of all the classrooms that may be utilized, as disabled students base their schedules on where the class is relatively located to other classes. My other suggestion is directed towards the maintenance department: there is a purpose for that second elevator, so when it is broken, please do not allow it to be out of order for six weeks.

This past Spring quarter, I had an amazing history class that happened to be in a crazy location: on the fifth floor of Old Main. To access this classroom, I had to first use the elevator on the south end of the building (which only goes to the fourth floor); then, I had to cross the entire building to the second elevator (which cannot be accessed on the first floor) to finally make it up to the fifth floor. This venture took me anywhere from four to ten minutes (depending on the elevators) to get to the classroom (once I entered the building). I understand that Old Main is an old building; it was the first building to be built on Western Washington University's campus in the late 1800's, so I am guessing that the elevators were not a part of this building's original design; the elevators in Old Main were probably installed at a later date. It is not this design that particularly bothers me; what does peeve me is when I had made it all the way to the second elevator just to find an able bodied person waiting to go down when I needed to go up. I know that others have just as much of a right to use the elevator as I do; none the less, it would be greatly appreciated that anyone who is able to please take the stairs. I am not able to use the stairs as a back up. So, the next time you are deciding whether to take the stairs or the elevator, remember back to that time that you got so fed up with waiting for the elevator, that you just took the stairs. Those of us who are in wheelchairs may also get fed up with waiting, but we cannot resort to taking the stairs.

Here is an informational video on elevator etiquette created by the spectacular Yomara Bedolla! 

Check her blog out at http://yoyoyomara.blogspot.com