Ok, it seems to me that we've gotten off track here.

To stroller or not to stroller for a nondisabled
person is not the original topic infused, but woe be
it from me to say if you want to talk about strollers
or no strollers in museums.

The issue, however, getting back on track, in this
instance, is the stroller as the accommodation device
for a patron with a disability who could not otherwise
take their child with them to the museum because they
could not carry the child.

All harrumphing aside, the only way to be compliant
with the law is to ban all children in the museum if
you cannot accommodate the parent who requires a
stroller for the child because of the parent's
mobility reasons.  Unless you're willing to ban all
children, you really DO need to accommodate the
disabled patron.  To not do so could find your
institution being litigated under the ADA.

What you or I choose to do with our
children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews/neighbors
kids/etc., is quite immaterial to the law.  Your
reasons for not doing something may very well be
ethical within your own standards.  Precluding someone
else from doing them because of your personal standard
then violates the law.

I don't want to sound like The Grinch, but that's the
law.  If you do not accommodate the disabled patron,
and it is reasonable (what a reasonable person would
do under the circumstances) for you to have
accommodated and not borne unbearable expense to your
institution to accommodate them, you are
discriminating on the basis of one's disability.

I fully understand the klutzes of the world.  Lord
knows, due to my own inattentive nature and
impulsiveness, I've experienced many a klutzy mishap.
But you simply cannot discriminate against the person
with a back injury because maybe somewhere someone
will miss the stroller and plow into the child.

If that were the logic, you would also disinclude the
blind.  I mean a blind person with a cane might plow
into your other patrons.  A person in a wheelchair
could conceivably roll right over their toes.  A deaf
person might not hear your emergency warning.

If that's the logic you're going to apply, here in the
states, DO expect to be sued.  The disabled are
becoming more and more adamant about their rights to
equal opportunity, and you could have a resounding
effect on your development/funding as a result.

Think about it.  If government and major corporations
are no longer supporting the Scouts due to (deemed to
be) discriminatory behavior, how long are they going
to support your institution when grant time comes
around if you have the stigma of a discrimination suit
to the disable?

Whether you like the law or not is immaterial.  It
must be complied with.



--- "David E. Haberstich" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In a message dated 00-09-06 11:21:08 EDT, Tracie
> Evans wrote:
>
> << Okay, may I'm missing something here.  The whole
> issue is that while
> someone
>  was walking through your museum they were not
> watching were they were going
>  and fell over a stroller who was doing nothing
> wrong.  Because of this the
>  stroller was banned?    That person could have just
> as easily backed up over
>  a person with a walker would they have then been
> banned? >>
>
> Yes, you missed the point--syntax aside--that the
> child in the stroller was
> *injured*.  That apparently was the rationale for
> the Kimall's restriction.
> I think that the way an adult might trip against a
> low-to-the-ground stroller
> and be unable to regain his balance because of the
> horizontal configuration
> of the "bulky, heavy, cumbersome" vehicle would
> frequently create a greater
> hazard than simply backing into a standing child.  I
> have often run into
> small children in our crowded museum--or they ran
> into me--but I didn't fall
> down and no one was hurt.  It's obvious to me that a
> collision with a "bulky,
> heavy, cumbersome" stroller would represent a higher
> risk of injury to both
> me and the stroller occupant.
>


=====
Indigo Nights
[log in to unmask]


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