Acclaimed library disappoints disabled, but corrections promised

Steve Johnston worked as a Seattle Times reporter from 1977 to 2001. He has used a wheelchair since 1997 and recently took a tour of the new library to check out its accessibility.

By Steve Johnston
Special to The Times

BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Darlene Hilling tries out the Fifth Avenue entrance to Seattle's new Central Library with her guide dog, Lyndon. She's following the lead of Greg Lopez, who, using his cane, has discovered and memorized various landmarks to guide his way.

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He could have added "accessibility and inaccessibility" to that description.

To a person in a wheelchair, a mother pushing a baby carriage or a blind woman with a guide dog, the $165.5 million marvel looming over Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle is more about style and less about movement and accessibility than what the disabled community has come to expect from its public buildings.

While the library management asked people with disabilities for their comments on the library design, several who were on that committee said their suggestions were not incorporated.

"My impression was that the designers went for the minimum as far as accessibility," said Julie Grant, who is with the University of Washington's DO-IT program for disabled students. "It's like someone pulled out a book with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) codes and did 'just' that, and nothing more."

Grant uses a manual wheelchair and spent the day exploring the newest addition to downtown Seattle. Like many with disabilities, she found problems with access even before she got through the front door.

Alex Harris, who is in charge of library construction and capital programs, said the library takes access "very seriously" and will be making adjustments and corrections as comments come in. One of the first things to correct is the entrance.

Getting in the door

At the library Library Equal Access Program Cleo Brooks, manager of Library Equal Access Program, said staff members conduct tours and workshops on how to use the new library. The LEAP program can be reached at 206-386-4690 or e-mail Brooks at cleo.brooks@spl.org. Questions or concerns? Alex Harris also wants to hear from the public with questions or concerns. She can be reached at 206-386-4145 or e-mail at alex.harris@spl.org.

The walking public can use revolving doors to get inside, but those in wheelchairs and parents with strollers are supposed to use nearby doors with push buttons. But the buttons aren't obvious, and Harris said she saw one wheelchair user trying to get in through the revolving door.

"It's not clear how disabled people can come in," she said. "We need to add more (wheelchair) symbols."

Adding wheelchair symbols to the entrances on Fourth and Fifth avenues will direct people inside, but the entrances still remain difficult.

Darlene Hilling of Shoreline said these large doors present a different problem. Hilling is blind and uses a guide dog. When Hilling is in danger of running into something or when an object is coming toward her, her dog has been trained to get between her and the object. So when the large doors of the library open, Hilling says, her dog gets between her and the door and won't let her move forward.

After some coaxing, Hilling's dog goes through the first door. But then they find themselves inside what Grant described as "an airlock-style entry with no windows."

"I imagined what would happen if the button to open the second door fails and I would be stuck inside," Grant said. "It would be like (being) in an elevator without an emergency phone.

"Intuitively, the button to open the next door would be on the right side of the wall," said Grant, who studying to become an architect, "because when people are passing each other in single file they are suppose to move to their right. But the button was on the left side, and I thought I was stuck inside (after pushing the wrong button)."

It was the same problem for Hilling, who thought the next button would be on the right. But that button opens the outside door; a person going inside has to push the button on the left.

"I agree ... that the access through the entry doors is not working as well as it could," Harris said. "And some people in wheelchairs are not seeing which door to use, since the symbols are inconspicuous.

"The placement of the second opener within the double doors does not appear to work well for some users," she said. "We expect to improve the system."

Using the equipment

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Darlene Hilling discovers her guide dog has problems with the Fifth Avenue entrance to Seattle's new Central Library. The doors swing in an opposite direction than usual and a metal grating makes the dog anxious.

The library's LEAP (Library Equal Access Program) program provides equipment for the disabled, ranging from large-print publications to computers with Braille keyboards to others that speak the text. But some patrons, such as Della Shaffer, don't want to go into a separate room for that equipment.

Shaffer said she wants to be in the main library, but she cannot use the computers on many of the floors because they are on tall tables that require patrons to get onto barroom-style stools. Shaffer had polio as a youngster and, as a result, she is in a wheelchair and is less than 4 feet tall.

Greg Lopez and Jenne Jacobs of Seattle are blind and are able to find their way around by cane and guide dog. Lopez is able to "feel" his way by using a cane and tapping on landmarks on the floor. But even as experienced as Lopez is with getting around new environments, he said there are dangers lurking in the library.

A problem that Lopez pointed out is next to the LEAP room. It is a room that is a couple feet below the main floor. A rail surrounds it but a person in a power wheelchair could easily put one wheel over the edge. Granted they won't fall into the room — the rail would prevent that — but it would scare the person.

Jacobs, who, like Lopez, uses the LEAP resources, would like to have more information in Braille on the walls.

A foot in the elevator door

Meanwhile, Grant said she had a difficult time locating the elevators. When she started wheeling toward where she thought they would be, she came across the huge stairwell in the center of the building.

"I tried to go around it but it was too narrow to let a wheelchair through," she said. "I had to dodge staggered bookcases to get to the elevators."

There are three elevators and they are slow, so there are often several people waiting to get on. The elevator bell goes off when it arrives but the light showing which elevator is arriving is dim and hard to see, especially for someone sitting low in a wheelchair.

When the elevator door opens, a person in wheelchair has to move quickly to get through. One patron in a chair found his foot caught in the closing door. Unlike most elevator doors, this one didn't automatically open when it hit his extended foot. The people inside the elevator had to pry open the door to get him free.

A "bathroom from hell"

Public bathrooms are always an issue for the disabled and it is no different at the library. The bathrooms are on the first, fourth and seventh floors. Lopez calls the one on the fourth floor "the bathroom from hell" because it is difficult to get in.

Shaffer said all the bathrooms had the same problem: heavy doors that are difficult to open and keep open while trying to get a wheelchair through. There are no buttons to push to automatically open the door.

But the handicap stall is wide enough to get a wheelchair in and there are rails to help with transferring.

Harris said the bathroom doors should already be fixed to open more easily. All it takes is adjusting the closing arm so there is less pull on it, she said.

Spiraling in the stacks

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the library is the spiral that goes from the sixth to the ninth floors through the book stacks. On paper, this design looks good, but to someone pushing a wheelchair or a baby stroller, the spiral is a workout.

A person going from one floor to the next has to roll across the city-block-wide building to get up or down. A person able to walk can use the escalator. The elevators are an option for all, if patrons are willing to wait, but most in wheelchairs or with strollers use the ramps.

But the ramp aisles are too narrow to allow wheelchairs or baby strollers to pass each other. Adriena Martin of Seattle said it became so difficult to get by people on the ramps that she finally carried her 10-month-old son in her arms and her husband carried their stroller.

Harris said she has received plans for different ways to place the chairs and tables for computers "to make sure disabled users have access to work surfaces and computers in many locations."

"We take seriously our commitment to serve people with differing needs," she said, "and hope the building will meet the needs of our disabled library users well."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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