The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XXXVIII

[Commodore]

Thanks. I'll definitely have a talk with their supervisor and let him know his guards can't shut that door off. I'll probably have to add it to their post orders as well so it's in writing too.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Anyone here familiar with ADA compliance regulations? I ask because we had a situation today and I want to make sure I'm right before I come down on the security guards for it.

The front entrance to our building has one of those buttons on the inner door that people with disabilities can push to have the door open for them when they are leaving the building. Well I found out on cold days the guards shut that button off so the door doesn't stay open for 5 seconds and let cold air in. Today though, I saw an injured firefighter on crutches attempt to leave and the door didn't open for him when he pushed the button. That's how I found out the guards have been turning it off on cold days by the way.

Anyway, the situation made me a little angry because it seems pretty rude to me to cause people with disabilities and injuries some undue hardship just because the guards don't want to feel a little cold air. Then I got to thinking that turning the handicap access function off might also be an ADA violation.

Which brings me to my question: Is the above an ADA violation? I tried looking it up but didn't really find anything solid one way or the other.

Adding to what BirdJag already said...there wouldn't been an ADA door put there if the building code didn't require one. No one puts them in just for the heck of it. Extra evidence that shutting it off puts you out of compliance.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

@Commodore I just want to say thank you. I have to use those buttons sometimes.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Is the above an ADA violation?

The public has access to this building, right? This would be a violation in Canada, since the laws were tightened regarding disabled access to public places.

That said, enforcement of said laws is a joke. Far too many able-bodied take the disabled-access issue as an inconvenience at best, and there are plenty who have actually said that (regarding things like community mailboxes), "If you can't use them, you don't deserve to get mail. You should do everything online." And then there would be some clueless comment about how "everyone" has family, friends, or a trusted neighbor to run and fetch. Well, no, they don't.


A disabled person not being able to open a door isn't just an inconvenience. It's potentially life-threatening. How would such a person get out in case of fire or some other situation that required evacuation?

 

[Commodore]

@Commodore I just want to say thank you. I have to use those buttons sometimes.

It was just something that seemed wrong to me and I wanted to take steps to fix it.

The public has access to this building, right

Indeed they do. It's City Hall. Kinda blows my mind that this is happening in a government building. Of course the guards are from a private company so maybe I'll remind them that violations of federal law would certainly be grounds for cancelling our contract with them.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Indeed they do. It's City Hall. Kinda blows my mind that this is happening in a government building. Of course the guards are from a private company so maybe I'll remind them that violations of federal law would certainly be grounds for cancelling our contract with them.

Something else that occurred to me; just in case you don't get immediate cooperation from the yahoos. Since it is city hall reduced access is a direct infringement of the most basic aspects of equal representation. The right civil liberties attorney with a hard on for your local government could very easily eat them for breakfast.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Indeed they do. It's City Hall. Kinda blows my mind that this is happening in a government building. Of course the guards are from a private company so maybe I'll remind them that violations of federal law would certainly be grounds for cancelling our contract with them.

They disabled a disabled-access door in your CITY HALL???

Even here, at least one affected person would likely sue. That can't possibly be legal.


That said, disabled access to public places is a relatively new thing here, just since the '80s. Two members of city council took it upon themselves to spend a couple of weeks in a wheelchair, trying to go about their daily business of shopping, appointments, restaurants, and entertainment in the downtown. And to their credit, they did this in the middle of winter. They wanted to have a better idea of what it was like to try to get around and get access to places.

That's why more curbs are rounded, rather than square, and there are dips at the corners so wheelchair and walker users can get up and down. More buildings have ramps and access buttons to open doors.

It's still not ideal by any means, though. There are some places I literally can no longer go, and other places where it's difficult. And a couple of summers ago, when they fixed the pot holes and repaved the parking lot in my building, we weren't allowed to use the front door. The back entrance has a ramp... that is too steep for wheelchair/walker users to navigate alone. Lose control there, and you could end up unable to stop and be literally in the middle of the street. I was stuck here for six weeks (not that I really wanted to go anywhere since the smoke from the BC forest fires and later fires in Banff/Jasper was making it next to impossible to breathe outside anyway, but if I'd had to evacuate for any reason, I'd have been in trouble).

 

[Commodore]

Something else that occurred to me; just in case you don't get immediate cooperation from the yahoos. Since it is city hall reduced access is a direct infringement of the most basic aspects of equal representation. The right civil liberties attorney with a hard on for your local government could very easily eat them for breakfast.

True. I don't think it will go that far though. Their supervisor is pretty good about dealing with this kind of stuff when he finds out about it. So it should stop once I talk to him.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Short answer...connecting your antenna into the installed cable distribution system works fine.

Long answer...

Spoiler :

Inside the walls is a connection network that is exactly the same as you would run outside the walls if you were to be connecting multiple devices to your antenna. Various lengths of cable runs connected through appropriate signal splitters are in there. There's also one long cable running (most likely) to an access panel on your floor where the cable company can connect or disconnect each unit. There may be a really long cable running all the way down to a master panel for the whole building. Either way, since you don't have cable it will be disconnected and won't make any difference.

So since I don't have cable and I can't connect/disconnect my unit as a rental, this won't work for me? I'm a bit confused.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So since I don't have cable and I can't connect/disconnect my unit as a rental, this won't work for me? I'm a bit confused.

Should have stuck with the short answer Hobbs. The 75 ohm network inside the walls doesn't care where the signal comes in, it just distributes it to everything connected to the network. The only way you could get into trouble is if you tried to hook up your antenna while you actually had cable, because that would put two competing sources into the distribution net. Since you don't have cable you are already disconnected from that signal, so the connecting network for your apartment is just hanging around inside the walls waiting for you to use it.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Sweet. I take it all TV's will be slaved to a single single? So if I change channel on one TV, it changes on all of them?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Sweet. I take it all TV's will be slaved to a single single? So if I change channel on one TV, it changes on all of them?

I dunno how your antenna and amplifier work. Does it have a tuner, or do you change channels on the TV itself? If you are changing channels on the TV that implies that the antenna and amplifier are broad band across the entire TV band, and are putting all the available signals into the cable system, so each TV should be able to tune the one you want independently. If the amplifier box has a tuner and you are using that to choose your channel, then yeah that channel is gonna be the one that goes in the wall so it is gonna be the only one that comes out.

Basically, if the instructions for your antenna and amplifier start with "tune your TV to channel three" or something very like that then you are using an internal tuner in the antenna amp box. Another simple test...did this antenna thing come with a remote? If so it has an internal tuner and will be putting out a single channel.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

It does not have a tuner and I change channels on the TV itself. It does not have a remote and I didn't have to tune to a specific channel to use the antenna and amp.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

It does not have a tuner and I change channels on the TV itself. It does not have a remote and I didn't have to tune to a specific channel to use the antenna and amp.

Okay, that means it is a broadband amplifier just pumping everything it picks up out to whatever is attached to it. That means that each TV will individually pick up whatever signal you tune it to. So you can watch as many different channels as you have TVs.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: My mother was watching some TV show about a ship that sank after hitting a rock or something. I forgot the name. What is a "mustard station"?

 

[shadowplay]

Question: My mother was watching some TV show about a ship that sank after hitting a rock or something. I forgot the name. What is a "mustard station"?

Muster station.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Oh.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Question: My mother was watching some TV show about a ship that sank after hitting a rock or something. I forgot the name. What is a "mustard station"?

It's near the end of the buffet line when there are sandwiches available.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I would think if the ship was sinking everyone would be too seasick to eat.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I would think if the ship was sinking everyone would be too seasick to eat.

When the ship is sinking is one of the times that things get hectic enough to distract even the most susceptible from being seasick. Not that I've ever been on a ship that was actually sinking, but I've thought I was a couple times and it really settles your stomach.