Tuesday, August 18, 2009

No Disadvantage

The gym I go to has two showers in the women's locker room. One is a standard model that's in a small room with a door so you can shower and change in private. The other one is handicapped accessible with a roll-in entry, handrails along the side, and a seat at one end. It looks like there's plenty of room for someone who is showering and a wheelchair. I've never seen its shower head up close, but from a distance it looked strange and intimidating. This shower doesn't have a private changing area.

Every time I shower at this gym I choose to use the separate setup. Even though there's rarely anyone else in the locker room at the time I'm changing, I just like having the additional privacy of the closed door. Today there was someone else in "my" shower after I finished my workout, so I had a dilemma. I could either wait for the room to be available, or try the other bathing facility. I didn't have a lot of time to spare, so today I used the handicapped-accessible shower at the gym.

The shower turned out to be really nice. The seat folded up against the wall to make the stall very spacious. The shower head turned out to be adjustable and removable. It slid up and down on a bar to make it higher or lower, and the head could be used as a hand-held. I was afraid the water was going to leak out all over the floor (since there was no lip at the entrance), but the stall was big enough that everything stayed contained. I'm not positive, but it seemed like the water pressure was better in this one!

After I finished showering, it was time to dry off. I chose to keep the shower curtain closed while I toweled off, then opened the curtain and stayed in the far corner of the locker room while I quickly put my clothes on. I shouldn't have worried, though, as the room was completely empty.

2 comments:

  1. We stay in a handicapped condo in Cayucos and the shower is much like the one you describe. It's really a nice shower, even for those of us who are not handicapped.

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  2. I am looking to put in more restrooms and showers here at the campground and, of course they will have to meet ADA approval. It will be interesting to see how many will opt to use the handicap one as opposed to the regular ones. The additional room to move around will make a big difference, I am sure.

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