Pandering for Votes Meet Rep. Mickey Dollens
Around 00.06% of the U.S. population uses a wheelchair , one sixtieth of one percent of the population, yet there is a movement that wants to require private businesses, public buildings, and even private homes to spend vast amounts of money beyond the ACA requirements, remodeling their bathrooms to provide access for the disabled. And it is hard to get reliable information on the scope of disability because the advocates for the disabled are like most special interests, they will not stop at stooping to lie using statistics.
As an example there are “studies” claiming that there are huge numbers of parents with disabilities, up to 6% of the U.S. population and UN studies claiming that 10% of the population world wide is disabled. To get there they lump deaf, blind, alcoholics, drug addicts, and mentally ill people in with the elderly and people that are temporarily using crutches or a walker. Or even a mobility device like one of the elderly scooters.
But in fact, a tiny, tiny, fraction of the Oklahoma population is truly disabled to the point of actually needing a wheelchair. Even that number, 00.06% would mean 24,000 people in wheelchairs in Oklahoma. Now of these, the statistics say that 36% are there because obesity. And yet how many actual people do you see in wheelchairs or people that you know or know of are in wheelchairs? That is because most cannot or prefer not to go out in public due to the amount of time to get transport arranged or the cost.
If you drilled down to the actual number of people that required a wheelchair for more than comfort or ease, you would likely be at 1000 people or less including the morbidly obese. Another optic, look at the number of wheelchairs you see in daily life. It is a very small number as most of the truly disabled are in hospitals, nursing homes, or other institutions and not traveling around in public.
That didn't stop ultra liberal State Rep Mickey Dollens from filing a bill pandering to a tiny special interest group wanting to take the ACA regulations and put them on steroids. HB 3952. One of his liberal constituents by the name of Audra Beasley started gathering up people to support this change and is currently making the rounds getting media attention. They are complaining that the current baby changing tables in restrooms have a fifty pound weight limit so they came up with a bill called Max's Law that would force taxpayers to fund height adjustable universal changing tables in all buildings serving more than 1500 people and it mandates any building that is to be remodeled with over $10,000 of repairs, or if the remodel requires a permit for any amount of remodeling or upgrades includes one of the luxury disabled restrooms.
The rooms are to be at least eight by ten feet, with a lift capable of going from eight inches off the floor to 34” off the floor, a weight capacity of 350 pounds and a 25 x 72 surface. In addition a full suite of additional items are required, additional handicapped toilets in addition to the ones already mandated by ACA, lavatory, waste can, all the other items found in existing handicapped rest rooms. Signage must be spread throughout the building and the building directories must be changed to show the location of the luxury handicapped rest room. Past that, any new buildings built after 2020 will require the inclusion of one of the extremely expensive handicapped restrooms.
I would estimate between $150,000 and $250,000 per restroom. And take the Capitol as an example, where would the space be carved out for an additional 8 x 10 room to serve one user at a time be found? I would suggest putting it in Dollen's office if no other place could be found. Or they could wipe out ten other restroom cubicles and let the women wait in line I suppose.
When the ACA came along I was working commercial construction and watch hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on putting wheelchair lifts on the back side of buildings simply because there was a rear entrance and the disabled person couldn't be bothered to go around to the front of the building. On one job I went back after about two years to take care of a small problem and I asked how many times the rear wheelchair lift had been used. Zero..... zero times.
We saw regular restroom cubicles shrink so they could carve out an eight by eight handicapped space, even if there were no handicapped employees working in the building. Regular offices had to be built handicapped accessible even if there were no handicapped workers. When does the day come when companies are required to hire a percentage of handicapped workers, or handicap the ones they already have working? Ball peen hammer to the knee, problem with our statistics is solved.
And this is just a start if you read the comments on Mickey Dollen's Facebook posts on the issue. These same liberal activists are finding fault even with the ACA requirements and are demanding toilets so that midget's feet aren't dangling in the while squatting down taking a Dollen. Along with step stools for the sinks and hand drying equipment. They are even wanting to force doctors offices to provide wider access doors than the ACA requires because some can afford oversized wheelchairs (taxpayer affords them actually). They are even demanding these floor lifts for doctors offices, dentists, optometrists, and one commentor called Dixie Jo demanded every single bathroom in every single state be forced to have these luxury handicapped restrooms. They are even demanding the ACA height sinks be lowered and even attacked the new OKC airport remodel for putting a federally mandated service animal pooping area. That is another story on its own.
Read some of these entitled liberal comments from Dollen's Facebook post. Note that this Beasley woman is the wife of a public school teacher and a special ed teacher at that.
Tasha Smith …..The folks who design and engineer public restrooms have ZERO clue about what is important in them. From the door being too heavy, to the toilets being too tall, to the sink, soap, and paper towels. It’s incredibly frustrating.
Dixie Jo Tasha Smith I can totally relate my daughter is 24 with spastic triplegic cp it's hard when were gonna for a long period of time because there is nowhere to change her.
Audra Beasley Jessie Early we don't homeschool, but Ty Beasley, my husband, is a special education teacher at Norman.
Sasha Albright This is great and amazing!!! But may I add, as a parent of a Little Person, that public restrooms need to have some sort of step system in place for shorter statured people to be able to reach the sink and hand drying equipment (be it a dryer or towels)!!!
vy Lark Griffey Wonderful! So glad this is being addressed. My daughter is potty trained now (Hallelujah!), but no parent should have to lay a child on the floor to change a diaper.
Our family walked out of a Braum’s mid-order when we realized there was no changing table. It was a nice, big, modern store, so there was no excuse. The McDonald’s next door had a great facility, so they got our business that day.
I can only imagine how much harder this is for families of children or adults with disabilities. Thank you for taking on this fight!
Michelle Young Not only this is a issue,but MOST Doctors offices door are not wide enough for a amortized wheel chair if it is over size. You would think that doctors offices would HAVE to ADA standard.thank you for help Oklahomans
Patti Jasinki How about being able to transfer onto a table at the doctor's office, the chair in the optometrist offices the charts can be read correctly or the other machines that test your eyes. A dentist chair that can accommodate a person who has no trunk control so their teeth can be cleaned
Where are all the places that people limited mobility can use? We have barely begun to scratch the surface.
Dixie Jo Wow it needs to be in every single bathroom in every single State. It's so hard when they get to a certain size not being able to change them. Most of the time if we know we're gonna be gonna for a while we will put 2 diapers on her
Heather Anne This is awesome Mickey! Another change that needs to happen ( from my view point) in public restrooms is lower sinks. I find even the ones they SAY are wheelchair friendly, aren't because the spout is too far back to reach.
Of course this is all pandering on Dollen's part. He is a Democrat, wanting pie in the sky money to be blown on public buildings both private and government owned, there is little chance that the bill will be heard.
But should it be heard, you can count on this bill being on the 2020 Trump Index.
Everyone has had someone in their family disabled at some time. I had a father in law get a heart attack, lose both feet to blood clots as a result, and I went over and remodeled one of the bath rooms so he could use it. I didn't demand the government accommodate his needs, I spent my own money. And the family didn't expect anything more when they visited a store or doctors office, the ACA restroom is a good compromise and there are plenty of them. I had a nephew in a wheelchair, same thing, the family sucked it up and made do. And when my time comes I certainly will not demand millions of hard earned tax dollars be wasted on these Taj Mahal bathrooms in case I want to go to a movie theator.
Handicapped people are disadvantaged, some through tough luck, some through their own acts, some just through aging. Yes, they will be limited on where they go unless we want to suck the taxpayers dry and spend billions on making everything accessible. Let's face it, some people are just screwed by life, nothing will ever change that. No amount of virtue signaling will change that. Deal with it.
