Mark & Juanita wrote:
... As I
mentioned in my examples, in one case when we added on, we were required to
provide 4 spaces -- in the entire history of the congregation we had never
had more than two people at a time who needed such accomodation, and for
long periods of time, we had no one who needed them -- for a small
congregation the expense of adding parking lot and then consuming 50% of
the expansion for spaces that would not be used was a burden on the members
that didn't seem right.

I can top that story. It is at least conceivable that more handicapped
persons might join the congregation (at which point I'm confident the
congregation would have been happy to expand the accomodations anyhow)
but I suppose also some handicapped persons might be inspired to join
the congregation becuase of the surplus accomodation. Not nearly
as likely in the story below.

A few years back I stopped in at a local bar/package store
(carryout) I had not visited in a number of years. The local topography
was such that the parking lot rose gently up to main entrance so that
it and the whole interior floor were basicly at grade. The building
was (probably since first built) handicapped accessible without any
special consideration. I bet the guys delivering kegs and beer cases
appreciated that too.

Anyhow, the first thing I noticed was that a lot of remodeling had
been done. Then I noticed a stage with a miror behind it had been
added to the side. E.g. the owners had converted the bar to a
strip club. Then I noticed that there were two railings between
the stage and the audience, the outer railing was about 30 inches
in front of the inner railing and inclined at a slope of about
12/1. Yes, that's right. The bar was required to build-in wheelchair
access to the stage so that there would not be any architectural
barrier for wheelchair-bound strippers they might hire.

In this case "build it and they will come" didn't seem likely.




Both good will and also simply because it's the right thing to do out of
caring for those in our midst.



No kidding. I'd think so too.

But I've read that among the worse offenders prior to laws requiring
accomadations were some high class restaraunts. Not did many not
provide assistance simply out of good will, but many actually refused
service to persons in wheelchairs and even after many were notrious for
'losing' reservations, if someone in the party that made them showed
up in a wheelchair.

Maybe those stories were true, maybe not, I never checked and since
then I've learned to eb lot more skpetical of such stories.

Oh -- I have no trouble at all believing yours however.

--

FF