Strange things I see

Wayslow said:

 

We had a hospital renovation project that required Braille signage on all of the electrical panels including the main switchgear. Not sure how many blind electricians they had on staff.

I won't argue with you about whether or not that story is actually true, but I will say whoever specified that either doesn't understand the ADA or was just making E36 M3 up off the top of their head.  Utility rooms and service spaces are specifically excluded from accessibility requirements:

The 2010 ADAAG wrote:

203 General Exceptions

203.1 General. Sites, buildings, facilities, and elements are exempt from these requirements to the extent specified by 203.

[...]

203.5 Machinery Spaces. Spaces frequented only by service personnel for maintenance, repair, or occasional monitoring of equipment shall not be required to comply with these requirements or to be on an accessible route. Machinery spaces include, but are not limited to, elevator pits or elevator penthouses; mechanical, electrical or communications equipment rooms; piping or equipment catwalks; water or sewage treatment pump rooms and stations; electric substations and transformer vaults; and highway and tunnel utility facilities.

In reply to Duke :

I'm not sure why this is so important to argue, but my signs were identical to the one posted, and they absolutely are ADA compliant. 
 

Follow the link if it’s that important.
 

You know I'm also pretty good at what I do too, right?  I'd appreciate it if you don't suggest in a public forum that my work is being performed illegally.

Regarding the specific location, it was a glass storefront (like many commercial buildings). The doors are clearly visible from the entire building. No one who is visually impaired would EVER see the sign, because the doors are much too obvious. 
 

Besides, commercial exits already have lighted exit signs, which serve visually impaired persons fine. 
 

I stand by my assertion that those signs serve little to no purpose. Audible signals, or tactile walk surfaces would actually do something. 
 

Let's get back to humor. 

In reply to SV reX :

If they are tactile, they are compliant.  The ones at your link are tactile, with the word EXIT raised for reading by touch.  Therefore they are compliant.

You stated (or at least I misunderstood) that the signs installed were flat / smooth. Therefore not ADA compliant for the reasons I cited.

I am perfectly willing to believe I misunderstood, and if that is the case, I apologize.

As far as the implied silliness of the requirement goes, it's a building code. How do you write that regulation so that it doesn't apply to your specific case (where you assume it is not necessary) but does apply elsewhere (where you agree it is necessary) without writing a lot of ambiguity and subjectivity into it?

Most codes have a general provision for the AHJ to override them in cases where professional judgment may be required.  But opportunities for those judgement calls are not often specifically written into all the various places they could occur.  The requirements are written to be very specific and far-reaching. It's up to the designer / builder to request relief from the AHJ where the requirements make no sense or are infeasible.

In reply to Duke :

The project was for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). It was a client requirement. I was working for the M&E engineering firm at the time.

In reply to Wayslow :

Yep, bureaucratic clients get weird sometimes.  That's pretty ridiculous.

Stampie (FS) said:

Ummmm, 13?

In reply to triumph7 :

Ha! Good one. For me it took a minute cause I was focused on the sign, but that wiring. Unfortunately or funny enough I've seen worse but it definitely takes a slot in my top ten.

Well, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight. 

stanger_mussle (Forum Supporter) said:

Appleseed said:

In reply to spitfirebill :

It is. It was. Missile, right? The berk? Are we slipping?

Its been stanger_missle since 2002 (when I registered for Yahoo mail and misspelled it, now I have to misspell it out of tradition). I think it was SVRex that accidentally called me stanger_mussle in a reply and I thought it was berkeleying hilarious so I changed it. Then I made the dumb avatar one night after about 6 beers.

If you can't laugh at yourself and all that...

Well...2 years later I see I hadn't actually lost it.  Good to know.  

Saw something fit for this thread. A wheelchair access button in the middle of a wall of a building, not close to any doors:

No doors nearby. Looking left:

And right:

After examining the pics carefully I came up with a theory on why it's there, let's see if anyone else can guess...it's a serious theory, not that if you press the button it launches a mech from beneath the building that can only be piloted by a person in a wheelchair, or that it's a Tomb Raider-type speed/obstacle challenge for getting in through the door 20ft to the left

In reply to GameboyRMH :

That window used to be a door?

Yep that's what I'm thinking, I was looking for hidden/former doors when I saw the button, but it was much easier to spot in the pic for some reason.

Be careful.... there's safety coming.

I do not think that means what you think it means...

In reply to SV reX :

All you have to do is change one letter

Subway stations also have braille signs on some of the pillars. I've wondered how they know which pillars have the signs. 

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

A lot of blind people aren't like see-nothing blind, they can see shapes a bit but no focus.

Or, my favorite, partial blindness where you have large missing areas.  What is fun is that your brain will fill in the gaps.

One of my favorite stories was of a man who took, and passed, his concealed carry permit test, which involved a demonstration of marksmanship, and then got out his cane.  He had about a 10 degree field of vision, enough to be able to line up a target but still legally blind.  Arguably that is kind of the person who may need a level of self defense.  But, the look on everyone's faces when he got a good grouping and then tap-tap-tapped away from the range...

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Our new school also has braille on directories.  But how a low to zero vision student could find those directories is a bit of a mystery to me.