• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Retail Director Keith Schoen (left) walks in Ackerman with ADA Compliance Officer Karen Henderson

Photo

Most students find it easy to stroll through the UCLA Store to look for T-shirts and mugs they want to buy, but the same walk can turn into an exhausting trip for those in wheelchairs who have to navigate through a maze of sweatshirt racks that are sometimes placed close together.

For fourth-year psychology student Sharon Daly, buying a diary in the store is more than a simple round between the shelves to choose among the merchandise. Daly, whose disability requires the use of an electric scooter, said the space is too narrow for her to turn the corner.

“The people I asked for help were very helpful, but it’s still troublesome not being able to get things for yourself,” she said.

Daly is one of many students with disabilities who relies on mobile equipment to get around on campus. Many of these students have trouble getting around in the Ackerman Union store, where the space between tables, clothes and display racks is sometimes very tight.

The issue of wheelchair accessibility was recently brought to the store’s attention when a visitor to UCLA commented the space between clothes racks may have been inadequate. Throughout this month, the store has been working to make sure that its fixtures meet the guidelines set out in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which provides minimum width requirements of passage and turning space for wheelchair users.

According to ADA’s guidelines, the minimum width between the fixtures is 36 inches, while the space provided for turning the wheelchair must be at least 60 inches in diameter or be in a T-shaped space.

As part of its efforts to comply with the guidelines, the store asked Karen Henderson-Winge, acting ADA compliance officer in the chancellor’s office, to walk through the store on Wednesday, looking for possible areas where passages may be too narrow for wheelchairs to go through.

Henderson-Winge made several suggestions for improvements on several parts of the store to make it more accessible for wheelchair users, including relocating display racks and stools that block wheelchairs’ passage.

Retail Director Keith Schoen said because the original floor plan was drawn up in compliance with ADA’s guidelines, sections of the store with permanent fixtures, such as the Bookzone, are accessible to wheelchair users. Accessibility concern is mainly focused on the Bearwear and Fast Track areas, which sell apparel and accessories, because the fixtures there are movable, Schoen said.

“If you don’t look at them from day to day you could end up with the racks being put too close together,” he said.

Many students in wheelchairs said they find the store difficult to navigate through, especially during sales periods when additional tables are put out along the aisles.

Gatt Lindsey, a wheelchair user and graduate student at the School of Theatre, Film and Television, said the space between tables set out for sales is too narrow for him to pass through.

“I can get around the whole set of tables, but I can’t go through each to get to the merchandise in the middle,” Lindsey said.

Other students said they have no trouble browsing through the store in their wheelchairs.

“I go through the store everyday and it’s fine. I don’t think the space between the clothes racks is too narrow,” said Emanuel Lin, a fourth-year computer science student.

But Lin said he finds it more difficult to move through and turn around corners in the textbook section, located on Ackerman Union’s A-level.

“I can go through the aisles but it’s very difficult because the space between the bookshelves is very narrow,” Lin said.

Schoen said the store will need to pay more attention to the sections with movable clothes racks and tables.

“When the cleaning people come at the end of the day, we have to make sure that the fixtures are not moved around so that they’re butted against one another,” he said.

There may be some training for the morning staff to check and make sure the fixtures are properly moved back, he said.