I was never a big fan of Baywatch, which is, as far as I’m concerned, as close to reality television on a beach as you can get. I never went to the beach when I was stationed in California, or when we pulled into San Diego or Hawaii.
In fact, the last time I went to a beach was over ten years ago.
So I might be talking out of the side of my neck here, but I don’t think there are a lot of handicapped life guards.
I’m not trying to be insensitive, but I don’t see how someone without the use of their legs could pull a grown man out of the water from 25 yards out in the ocean.
Therefore, I don’t see a need to make this lifeguard tower handicapped accessible.
But then, I don’t work for the government:
“It’s odd. Obviously no one here is handicapped. No one in a wheelchair has ever asked to come up here,” head lifeguard Donovan Burns said during an interview on the building’s second floor. He noted that disabled people can borrow fat-tired beach wheelchairs from the lifeguard station for free, but those are stored on the ground floor.
The little yellow building near Pier 60 has to be brought into compliance with the state building code and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
…
Clearwater officials are a bit baffled by the order to make the upper floors handicapped-accessible. They expected to get a waiver so they could skip that requirement, but the state turned them down.
“Our premise was that a lifeguard has to be physically fit. If you can’t go down stairs, you can’t be a lifeguard. And the building isn’t open to the public,” said Clearwater parks and recreation director Kevin Dunbar, who oversees the beach rescue team. “But common sense doesn’t really play into it.
“They said, ‘What happens if the public comes in on a tour or something like that? You have to make it accessible.’ “
Florida officials say rules are rules, and that Clearwater has to follow the state building code.
I read a great book about this kind of thing a few years ago. It’s called “The Death of Common Sense.” If you haven’t read it, pick up a copy.
