Sale at Michael's!

[AllegroRondo]

Polymer clays - Sculpy III, Premo, and Firmo, all only 99cents for a 2 ounce pack. And Firmo is normally $2.79! I just blew $50.

Anyone else have good luck this weekend?

[China_cat]

1. I can no longer go to our local Michael's.

The last time I tried there was no way to get even my wheelchair through the aisles. Had to have a couple people pick up the chair with me in it to turn around and get out.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. talk to management

and your local disabled group

They may drive some sense into them

[China_cat]

6. I have, up to and including letters to headquarters.

All I got was a $25 merchandise certificate and an assurance that Michael's follow the law to the letter.

Yeah, right.

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. I believe

it is the Department of Justice that enforces provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. You should document your difficulty shopping at Michael's. A cellphone photo of the narrow isle (preferabbly showing the lack of clearance for your wheelchair) or a couple of witness statements should suffice. Forward that along with copies of any previous correspondence to/from Michael's. The store may or may not be required to widen its isles - but I believe at the very least they will be required to have someone personally wait on you and help you shop.

For ADA information or information about filing a complaint call:
800 - 514 - 0301

[China_cat]

10. Glad to know there's someone who believes the ADA is

still being enforced. It isn't.

[Coyote_Bandit]

11. .

I am aware of a number of businesses in my area that have had stiff fines imposed for failure to comply with ADA - and had to make necessary modifications to facilitate wheelchair access. I am licensed to practice law and am acquainted with a number of colleagues who regularly litigate ADA issues.

You have made no indication that you have contacted anyone regarding ADA enforcement with respect to your circumstances. You have only indicated that you have contacted the offender - who is not likely to voluntarily admit or remedy any deficiencies. Doing so is an implicit admission of noncompliance. In any event, ADA does not necessarily require that the store widen their isles to accommodate wheelchair access. Other accommodations can be made - just as they are for other shoppers facing other challenges.

I am sorry about your circumstances and the access difficulties it poses. Good luck.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. I'm glad to hear the ADA is still being enforced.

There have been some awful court rulings in relation to ADA, which may be the only good thing to come out of Poppy Bush's administration.

If ADA doesn't make stores widen their aisles, what would be the other accommodations? I'm imagining trying to get a clerk to bring all the contents of an aisle to show to a wheelchair user! If you're trying to buy yarn, you do want to see all the yarn available. Same with paints, rubber stamps, etc. Sure, I've gone in sometimes just to buy one Pentel pen or one rubber stamp, but only because I was going to the grocery store nearby. Most of the time, I'd also do some browsing to see what's new.

Michael's is the kind of store where browsing is important. Customers also buy more when they browse all the aisles so they're losing money by having their aisles too narrow for wheelchairs. How much they're losing is hard to say, of course, but they've lost my respect now that I know this. I'll be checking the width of the aisles next time I go to the local Michael's to see if their aisles are narrow, too.

[Coyote_Bandit]

15. The issue is access and accomodation not equality

Price tags do not have to be in Braille for blind customers. Stores do not have to have TTYs to make or receive calls from customers with speech or hearing impairments. Stores do not have to have someone with the ability to sign available to communicate with deaf customers. Not every store entrance or check-out lane has to be wheelchair accessible. Disabled parking spaces must be at least 96 inches wide. A 32 inch opening (with the door at a 90 degree angle) is the standard used by the ADA to measure whether doors are wheelchair accessible. There are specific requirements defining the minimum length and height of the counter. There are very specific requirements that define the slope of ramps and the closing speed of doors among other things. ADA requirements are so detailed and specific that it is fair to say that probably most all public places are in violation of at least some portion of the law. It is not mandatory that dressing rooms be wheelchair accessible - but stores are required to have a liberal return policy for disabled patrons denied access to dressing rooms. Elevator controls do not have to be lowered to facilitate use by those in wheelchairs - but a pointer device must be installed to enable them to use the elevator. Chairlifts and/or elevators are not necessarily mandatory in retail stores having multiple shopping levels - alternatives include bringing samples of the merchandise from the inaccessible level to the accessible level; using photo albums with price lists; and video taping the merchandise. Stores are generally required to provide service at the door to customers who are unable to move down the aisles. Same thing is true for customers who are not wheelchair bound but have difficulty accessing shelves due to height or due to some condition that restricts their ability to grip or remove items from the shelf. Same is true for blind shoppers.

Disabled persons who are denied access and whose needs are not reasonably accommodated have several options. They can approach the offender in hopes they will voluntarily remedy the situation. An offender may be liable for multiple offenses for the same violation and is not likely to do anything to admit error. The aggrieved party can file a complaint with various agencies including the Department of Justice or the state attorney general. Finally, the aggrieved party can obtain private legal counsel and pursue direct action against the offender.

Please understand I am pointing out that there are alternatives available to disabled shoppers when an offending retailer (or other public place) is unwilling to accommodate their needs. I would encourage anyone who finds themselves in such a position to pursue one or more of those alternatives. The law intends that they have access and that their needs be accommodated.

[DemBones DemBones]

19. Thanks for all the information. I am

disabled but not confined to a wheelchair, usually just use a cane, so I notice how many businesses have extremely heavy doors, don't have grab bars or raised toilets in the restrooms, don't have railings on steps, etc. When I do use a wheelchair, I'm faced with the problem of narrow aisles, pushing my way through racks of clothes that are too close together so that the clothes brush against me, making me feel like I'm in a jungle and need a machete, and, worst of all, many near collisions with people who aren't looking where they're going except at their eye level, not seeing anyone in a wheelchair.

I'm surprised that ADA is not stricter with businesses because about 1984, we had inspectors come to the college where I was teaching and they insisted that all sorts of accomodations be made in the science building. At the time, we had one science major who had become a paraplegic just months before. Since the building was at least fifty years old and had no elevator, other guys would carry the guy in the wheelchair up and down stairs as needed. In the biology labs, we set up a small table for him to work on because his wheelchair wouldn't fit under the biology lab tables, which had just been installed two years earlier when the building was completely remodeled.

The inspectors were really rude in telling me and another faculty member that we had to put in an elevator and had to have lab tables altered to accomodate the student in the wheelchair, as if it were our fault that this hadn't been done, when complying with ADA in structural matters clearly is always under the mandate of the director of the physical plant, not the responsibility of the faculty. Just our luck that we were the ones not teaching a class when they showed up unannounced! Neither of us was a department chair and I guess we should have told them to talk to the chairs, not us. Of course the college complied but I think the student had graduated before the changes were finished. (Interestingly enough, my husband still teaches at that college, in another department, and they still have no elevator in their building. I think that's true of at least two other buildings on campus that house academic departments. Go figure!)

In the nineties, teaching at a different college, I had a student who was legally blind and used a guide dog but had limited vision. I had to write the recommendations for what she would need to experience freshman biology lab as fully as possible with her limited eyesight, a rather difficult task since so much of biology lab work is visually oriented.

In both cases, the colleges spent thousands of dollars, far more than it would cost some businesses to make minor modifications. Is ADA enforced more strictly in educational settings or was it just the fervor of ADA being new that drove this (particularly the rude inspectors)?

[Coyote_Bandit]

21. The attorneys I know who do ADA work

represent plaintiffs - and they pursue a variety of defendants. Through the years I have known a number of disabled folks and have had ample opportunity to observe their challenges. One of my law school classmates was dyslexic and was given special testing accommodations in law school and for the bar exam. I've had family members who lost their sight as they aged. And family members who were required to use wheelchairs. I also have some disabilities. I am partially sighted on one eye. I experienced a sudden hearing loss several years ago and have residual hearing impairment. And I have a high level math related learning disability. I am very fortunate that none of my disabilities currently require special accommodations. That may not always be true.

I do think that there was more awareness of ADA when it was first instituted. It was new. It was not well understood. It was incredibly detailed. And it applied to disabilities that were obvious and apparent as well as to hidden disabilities. With time, many of the requirements have been incorporated into various building procedures. But the ADA has slipped from public awareness. I think there is less vigilance with respect to compliance by various public venues. And there are now attorneys who have specialized in ADA litigation who seek out violations.

One of the things about ADA is that a single item that is non-compliant can represent many separate violations. A curb that is not ramped to allow wheelchair access would be a violation with respect to every single disabled person. Damages can very quickly become very large. This is what makes it attractive to plaintiff attorneys. It is also what makes public institutions willing to spend lots of money to remediate various physical conditions.

[DemBones DemBones]

23. It's odd that many people who aren't born with a disability

don't seem to realize that they can become disabled in an instant, or over a longer period of time. It's also frustrating that so many people resent the "special privileges" that the disabled get! Especially when it's preogressives doing the resenting. I haven't seen a bash-the-disabled thread lately at DU but there have been many. "Too many parking spaces for the disabled," "I see people as healthy as I am with disabled parking permits," etc.

I hope Congress will protect the ADA and that the courts will not be allowed to make rulings like the one about the nurse in Alabama who was demoted after breast cancer surgery. As I recall, she was a nursing supervisor at the University of Alabama med center, probably Birmingham, not Tuscaloosa. I'm sure you know the case. Unbelievable that the judge ruled for the university! That sort of thing has led to the perception that ADA no longer matters.

[DemBones DemBones]

20. How do you avoid having people run into you in stores?

Whenever I use a chair or a scooter, I have at least one near collision with people who aren't used to watching for people in wheelchairs or on scooters. If I'm using a scooter, I beep the horn when approaching "intersections" and of course I stop and look but still people come crashing through the intersections with their baskets, NOT stopping and looking. It's less nerve-wracking just to walk -- I can always fend them off with my cane, LOL, but my doctor does not want me spending more than 10-15 minutes walking on concrete floors so that's a problem when I want to browse.

I was thinking a big flashing light at their eye level would work. Do you think a bright orange flag would work? Or do you live somewhere where people are more careful?

[ellie]

2. JoAnn's

was having a President's Day sale and Simplicity patterns were 5/$5. I bought 10 of them. They were on sale at Hancock's too, but I just couldn't make it there (there is a JoAnn's right around the corner from me). I was going to go to Michael's, but I couldn't make it there either.

[snappyturtle]

3. Good for you! I'm sixty miles from a Michaels--boo! n/t

[WolverineDG]

7. There's a Michaels where I live

but I'm hours from Hobby Lobby....yarn, oh the yarn in that place!


dg

[AllegroRondo]

8. Hobby Lobby seems to have a better bead selection

at least in my area. They are a bit of a drive, though.

[tammywammy]

18. I've found that Joann's Superstores

Have the most awesome yarn selections!

Well, the new Joann's in my town does at least. :) Hobby Lobby is my second for yarn.

[proReality]

4. I would die for a Michael's in my town...

I'm stuck with the high priced Hobby Lobby.

If it weren't for the Craft Gods and Muses pointing me to the online craft sites I'd be continuously broke.

[Morgana LaFey]

12. I hate to burst any bubbles, but please remember that the owners

are severely -- and I mean severely -- right wing.

Yeah, I do shop there, but I try to minimize it.

[AllegroRondo]

14. NOOOOO!

Is Hobby Lobby any better?

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. Hobby Lobby

is owned by a Tulsa fundie who attends a politically active mega-church founded and pastored by a graduate of Oral Roberts University. Same fellow that owns Hobby Lobby also owns Mardel Christian bookstores.

[AllegroRondo]

17. Jo-Ann fabrics? Ben Franklin?

is any Hobby store safe?

[eridani]

22. I think Jo-Ann's is blue

They are more oriented toward sewing than toward crafts in general, though. If I can get stuff there, I do, and try to minimize Michael's purchases.