AUBURN – Cheryl Poppell rolled up to the doors of the newly renovated Auburn Public Library soon after it opened, eager to take in the renovated space.
But her trip stopped at the door.
While the interior has been made handicapped-accessible – with new elevators and wide aisles among the stacks of books – the doors at each of the library’s three entrances don’t have automatic openers. They must be opened by hand, a daunting task for anyone confined to a wheelchair.
“It’s impossible,” Poppell said. “To do it, you have to hold the door with one hand and pull backwards. You can’t get close enough to do that.”
Poppell knows. She relies on a scooter chair to get around most of the time. She suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a degenerative disease that causes chronic pain in her muscles and joints. She can drive a car but needs the scooter for any trip that might require walking.
“Plus, the doors are heavy and they open outward,” she said. “I can’t do it. The only way for me to get in is to bring a friend along to let me in.”
Poppell is a member of the Maine Disability Rights Center’s board of directors and sits on the Quality Improvement Council for the state. She knows that there are simple ways to make those doors work.
“Most places now have a button you push and the door opens on its own,” Poppell said. “What I don’t understand is how it didn’t happen. It’s just unbelievable that they didn’t catch this.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not mention automatic doors for wheelchair access, said Peter Rice, a litigator for the Maine Disability Rights Center. That doesn’t mean they are not required.
“What is specifically required is that the program be accessible,” Rice said.
Most modern buildings include automatic doors, he said. Auburn Hall, the city’s Court Street municipal office building, and Lewiston Public Library have button-operated automatic doors. Both were recently renovated.
“When you spend that much money on a renovation, there really is no reason to leave them out,” Rice said.
Rosemary Waltos, director of the library, agreed.
“It’s awful to think that we missed that,” Waltos said. “We want this building to be accessible for everyone, and we are going to correct it.”
The building is much improved from the old Auburn Public Library. It opened last month after a $7 million renovation. An elevator connected the first and ground floors, but the second floor was only accessible by stairway.
“I really thought we’d done a lot to make this accessible,” Waltos said. Handicapped-accessible elevators serve every floor, and all of the bathrooms, desks and work stations were designed with wheelchairs in mind.
“I cannot explain how it got by us,” Waltos said.
Waltos said she relied on builders and designers to make sure the renovation met all code requirements, including those in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I honestly thought we had all of it covered,” she said. She is scheduled to meet with designers from Burt Hill Architect on June 23 to find out how to fix the situation.
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