ADA --American Disabilities Act—Update

[Uncle Sam]

The car wash industry, either self-serve, express or full serve, has never had to deal with ADA requirements except maybe in their restrooms and using ramps instead of steps the same as other commercial businesses. Recently I have had experiences with operators building new or rehabbing an older facility where the local City planning department and inspectors are demanding that all the equipment in the wash including high security glass-front style vending machines must be ADA compliant. This is the tip of the iceberg and I can see the City officials making the ADA requirements universal all over the U.S.

ShurVend has accepted the fact that our high security vendors must meet the ADA regulations in the future to assist the wash operators during the building of a new wash or doing a rehab. Therefore we have redesigned our high security vendors to make them ADA compliant. The ADA requirements for a vending machine are very tight and there is very little wiggle room. It took a couple of tries on our first machine design to make it compliant, but we got it done. As the result of this redesign, all the different payment systems -- coins, bills, or credit card (Nayax or Crypto) and the keypad meet the upper height requirement and the refund cup and hopper meet the lower height requirement of ADA compliance.

You might think that all vendors manufactured by AMS or any other vendor manufacturer are all ADA compliant, but that is not true as I found out recently. If I want an ADA compliant vendor made by AMS, I have to order it that way! The geometry of the vendor door is different than the standard vendor which usually means there is one (1) less tray available in the vendor.
Cont'd

 

[Uncle Sam]

ShurVend has a customer right now that is doing a rehab of an older self-serve car wash and has been told by his City’s officials that every piece of equipment in the wash including the vendor will be measured against the ADA requirements. These ADA requirements will mean that certain parts of the building’s construction will have to meet these specifications. We will have an ADA compliant vendor for this operator when the time comes, so this is one less worry during the rehab.

I want to assure every wash operator in the U.S. that, if they are required by the City or County officials to have an ADA compliant vendor, we have a number of high security models for you to choose from that will satisfy the ADA requirements. This is one less worry for everyone in the business, Give Uncle Sam a call to solve your ADA vendor requirements.

Uncle Sam

 

[bighead]

Have him finish his rehab and get his occupancy permit, then once the city is done with him and he is open and running, have him put the vendor in place and plug it in. Unless it is a through the wall this should work. Once the city is done with their processes they won't be back measuring everything anyway.

I can't remember seeing a person in a wheel chair using a self serve, but i'm sure there is a first thing for everything.

 

[Uncle Sam]

bighead---The City did not want this wash where it is and tried to get the operator out of there. They have delayed and fought with him for 3 years to shut down the rehab, so I don't think the City officials will forget. I have another customer that is in an ADA lawsuit right now over some rule they are trying to enforce. Is it worth all the aggravation and lawyer fees being paid when you can comply upfront with the City and buy a little bit of cooperation.

I haven't seen a handicapped person in a car wash but maybe twice in 20 years, but that is not what the ADA is about. It is about bureaucratic control by people who have no idea how to run a business at all.

Uncle Sam

 

[Ghetto Wash]

I can't remember seeing a person in a wheel chair using a self serve

I have a couple of times. City required one bay at my wash to be 2' wider than the rest to accommodate.

As a side story I pulled up one day to find a paraplegic sitting on the ground next to his wheelchair struggling to get in his car after vacuuming. He had been trying for many minutes and had become weak and exhausted. He asked my to pick him up and place him in his car. I bent down and picked him up and tried to place him in the drivers seat. He wasn't too heavy, but it was awkward trying to put him in the car by myself. I put him back down on the ground so I could get a different grip and one of his legs got bent up beneath him as I set him down. I literally heard and felt the jolt as the large bone in his thigh snapped in two. Looked and his leg was bent in the wrong place and the wrong direction. Though he had no movement or control of his lower body, he could still feel the pain. As we waited on the paramedics to come, he told me that the bones in his legs had become brittle from lack of use and that he had broken his leg like that before. I regret not calling the Fire Department to assist in the first place. I was young and dumb and could do anything at the time.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Ghetto Wash,

You had a very bad experience at your wash. It is very difficult to try to help disabled or handicapped people; they are just dead weight to try to lift. Even though our hearts go out to them for their situation, sometimes you just can not help. You tried your best and it turned out badly. A lesson painfully learned.

Uncle Sam

 

[mjwalsh]

Ghetto Wash,

You just gave me "heads up" on something. I have dealt with sometimes a person laying in front of one of the bays. Not sure if alcohol involved or what. The 1st thing the 911 person asked "Does the person need an ambulance". Based on your experience ... maybe a business owner should always error on the side of caution. It gets into a policy response area where maybe possibly cracking the ribs to get the person breathing again would still be a risk worth taking??? Good Samaritan Laws???