Return to Ambridge Event Center

I was asked to participate in a review of the steps that the Ambridge Event Center has taken since my recent experience there.

People from Salem and people from the Service Delivery Area office in Portland were there. I was glad to see Heather from the SDA office there. She uses a power chair and is versed in the ADA. She had a lot of great input. I am a writer, but I am not very verbal. Joe, a person from Salem who handles ADA issues did an accessibility checklist, one for the basement and one for the main floor. The facilities manager and receptionist for the center were also there.

The upstairs is more accessible, but the room up their rents for ten times as much as the one downstairs. The state is always trying for a deal, but the person who heads the training department was resolute that accessibility should not be sacrificed for cost.


We all pointed out areas of inaccessibility in the center, but the facilities manager had a solution or a reason for each deficiency. Doors were heavy, but there would be someone there to help. The confusing buttons on the basement door were all removed; that door will remain unlocked when there is a State training down there. The restrooms that adjoin the downstairs training room are not at all accessible, but the ones out at the end of the hall are.

Heather has a minivan with a side ramp. None of the handicapped spots available had space on the side for the ramp to come out to. The facilities manager promised to set out a cone to create such space in the future when there is a training.

One excuse that was used many times as to why the center was not accessible was that they building was old and the building was "grandfathered" into the ADA - basically not required to follow aspects of the law due to the age of the building.

Accessibility and older buildings is a difficult marriage. Accessibility is expensive. The head of the DHS training unit said she now sees that assessing a venue's accessibility takes more than going through a checklist over the phone. Seeing a place, and watching a PWD (person with disability) maneuver through a place, is much more informative.

Hats off to the Ambridge Event Center for their good faith effort to make their building accessible, however makeshift it may be.

I am satisfied that my employer, State of Oregon, Department of Human Services, saw that accessibility is more than a checklist. Accessibility has to involve real input from people with physical challenges.

Whatever the outcome is from this exercise, I am excited that the conversation of accessibility has moved beyond the classroom and into the real world.