I went to vote today. And, found some problems that I believe I wrote about and sent to the local paper 2-4 years ago, but couldn't find a copy in my saved documents/emails. I remember, back then, that I rode a small scooter, and believe my wife and son came with me. I found the same dangers and problems then, but with my son's (and/or wife's) help, it wasn't quite as difficult at it was today.

I vote at the National Guard Armory (2nd Battalion, 150th Field Artillery, Charlie Battery), corner of North East Street and East Fordice Street, Lebanon (Center Township, Boone County), Indiana and don't believe the building is as ADA-compliant as it should be. Here's why.

Because of knee surgery, foot surgeries, balance problems, and not knowing how long the line in which I would have to wait would be, I cannot attempt the walk into the place to vote. I now have a larger scooter than I did, a few years ago, and have recently had my van modified, so I can get around without help. After an appointment in Indianapolis, this morning (11/07/2006), I stopped by the Armory to vote. It was drizzling, as it had been all night, so the ground was wet.

First, I tried to park in the muddy back yard, as we had last time, but a fire-truck was blocking the drive, so I had to back out, go around the block, and I found the last spot on Fordice by the bridge. I got my scooter out of the back of the van, and, because there's no sidewalk along Fordice, had to drive it from there IN THE ROAD, along the outside of the parked cars, to the sidewalk that leads to the handicapped entrance. THERE'S NO CURB-CUT THERE. The height of the curb and, I believe a step, is such that there would be no way to get my scooter up on it, without physically lifting it.

So, I drove, again, IN THE ROAD along the parked cars, down to the corner, where I was SURE there would be a curb-cut. Nope. I looked down N East Street, thinking there might be one directly in front of the Armory, and saw no curb-cut there. The corner was only a couple of inches high, so I bumped up onto the sidewalk along East Street, drove down to the sidewalk to the building entrance. There's only steps directly in front of the building, but a sidewalk goes to the side to the handicapped entrance.

I followed it, and drove up the ramp. This entrance is 1/2 concrete ramp, 1/2 steps, with a rail along the ramp. The porch was too narrow for me to open the door (which swings out flat to the building, I found out) for me to reach out and open it facing the direction I was. Backing up to pull it open, I would either hit the rail, or go down the stairs. I backed down the ramp, and tried to turn around. There one of my wheels went off the sidewalk, and my scooter's auto-shut-off, when power hits the bottom, kicked in as I tried to pull forward onto the sidewalk. After a couple of attempts, since I CAN walk, I stood up, and without my weight, the scooter rode up onto the sidewalk.

I managed to get turned around, and backed up the ramp onto the porch. I backed to a point where I could swing the door open, but one of my wheels was VERY close to the steps, and now my angle was such that I could not go straight into the door. The door is also JUST wide enough for my scooter to make it into, if I could enter it straight, which I couldn't. I got angled such that I was able to squeeze in, literally scraping by, and MOST of the rest of the voting experience was fine.

 

Ok... Now to leave. One of those at the table in the front walked to the door with me, and opened it, making it easier to exit than it would have been without someone there. I SHOULD have gone back out to the East Street sidewalk and back down Fordice, IN THE ROAD, but I thought the ground was hard enough for me to cross it, where a sidewalk SHOULD have been. I did this, heading toward the driveway, not expecting a curb, there, but there is. The ground is lower than the curb, and my scooter would not have made it over it. So I stopped, and tried to turn around, backing into a depression, where my scooter, again, stopped running. I was at a spot about 3-4' from the curb, between parked cars, where the curb was about 3" or so high, too high to go UP, but the scooter might have made it DOWN. Since I was "stuck", again, I got off the scooter, and using it's power, got it off the curb, then remounted.

Luckily, no cars were coming, so I drove, fast as the scooter would go, to where I'd parked, loaded up and left.

So... Here are the problems I believe need fixing at the Lebanon Armory, to make it easier for handicapped people to enter for any reason:

1. A three-to-four-foot-wide sidewalk should be installed along Fordice, from at least the bridge to East Street. With cars parked along it, the read is BARELY able to handle two cars going in opposite directions. As it was, I was pretty lucky that this didn't happen as I was going down the road. It should be noted that scooters, wheelchairs and bikes can be difficult to see, making how I had to go from the bridge to the corner quite unsafe. Luckily, my scooter has a lighting package, including flashers.
2. A curb-cut for handicapped people should be installed, and marked as a "No Parking" zone, at any or all of the following locations:
   1. at the sidewalk to the handicapped entrance on Fordice
   2. on the corner (and/or all the other corners of that intersection, if they don't exist (I didn't pay attention to them.)
   3. on East street, directly in front of the Armory
3. At the side-door handicapped entry:
   1. the porch should be widened, probably by at least a couple more feet (and/or the steps replaced with a widened ramp.)
   2. the entry door should be widened, at least a few inches toward the ramp side
   3. the entry door should have a push-button opener at the bottom of the ramp, or 1/2 way up the ramp. If it's locked most of the time, and the doorbell is to be used for someone inside to unlock and open it, a SIGN should say so. (If there was one there, I didn't see it.)
   4. the ramp should be made a little longer. A person in a wheelchair, if they are alone, would have difficulty making it up that ramp. My scooter "complained". The scooter I drove a few years ago would have required me "helping" it up the ramp by pulling on the railing.
4. IF possible, a ramp and handicapped entry door (push-button) should be installed on one of the side-doors of the main entrance.

When I mentioned the lack of curb-cuts and difficulty getting in to a poll-worker, they said they knew and that with this being a Federal building, they didn't understand, either.

I understand that there's possible/probable "historic" reasons for for not doing #4, but see NO reason for not doing #1, #2 and, at least some, if not all, of #3.

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by Bill Sanders © November 07, 2006
Pictures © November 16, 2006

Go to Handicapped Voting at the National Guard Armory in Lebanon, Indiana (Pictures)
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Followup

On May 02, 2007, I sent the following to the Reporter (Lebanon, Indiana's Daily Newspaper):

It was published in the May 03, 2007 Reporter, which is delivered in the morning.

At about 1:30PM, I received a call from the county courthouse. A lady there (who requested anonymity) said she'd tried to email me about the article, but the mail had failed. (She had the correct address... I guess the server was having problems at that moment.) She read part of the email over the phone, and we discussed options for voting, including Absentee Balloting and using the Courthouse in Downtown Lebanon. I asked her to send the email to a different address, and if it would be ok if I published it on this page, as others in Lebanon, itself, and Center Township in particular, might be helped. She said, "Yes", but asked me not to use her name.

Here it is:

The election mentioned is the City Primary Election, which I didn't even know about, and for which, with only a couple of contested candidates (depending on party), I would probably not even try.

I posted the above so that others in the area would know that there are alternatives, to even Absentee Voting, which I'm sure others are as unaware of, as I was.

Around mid-afternoon, I received a call from a Boone County elected officer. (I forgot to ask if I could use their name, and, because it wasn't an email and I will be paraphrasing, I don't think I should.)

I was told that a few years ago, some elected officials and others went around to all the polling places and check to be sure all were ADA-compliant. A group funded the effort to make those that weren't so, including the ramps at the courthouse. The official reiterated that the City was going to replace the bridge on Fordice, and add sidewalks to both sides of the street. We both wondered whether this would be the time they put the "curb-cuts" in for handicapped access at the corner and elsewhere. (I suggest that while they are building the new sidewalks would be the PERFECT time to do so. Why waste the concrete to build the sidewalk, only to have part of it chopped out to provide those cuts later?) I was told that the same group who provided funding for the initial ADA conversions was meeting soon, and that my concerns and suggestions - which were listed - would be discussed, then.

So, we'll see what happens by next election, I guess.

My question, now, is: When these officials went out (or go out) to check for ADA-compliance, do people using wheelchairs and scooters go too, to help point out the difficulties? If not, they should. I would like to be one of them. Shouldn't there also be a blind person and a deaf person with the group?

by Bill Sanders © May 03, 2007

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