bed height in Handicap accessable rooms

[AlexDurrani]

I need help regarding the standard height of a bed in a handcap accessable room at Port Orlean Riverside. Here is a picture of the height of the bed I have in the room. To me this bed is way too high for someone in a wheel chair to transfer to and from. I need to know if this is true or not. The resort has been black balling me over a lot of issues since I checked in including not having me assigned to a Handicap room with a roll-in shower when it was requested, to the room being so far away that it is easier to get to it by car and not by either bus or in my case an ECV. I get lost every time i come to the room at night.

 

[SueM in MN]

I can't find the thread eight now to point you to the documentation, but there is no standard in the current ADA Guidelines for bed height in a wheelchair accessible room. The current standards only give guidelines that must be followed for items that are permanently attached to the room, such as sink and toilets. Those Guidelines do not address any removable things like beds, chairs or other furniture.
So, unfortunately, the resort is correct in telling you their bed meets the standard because there is no standard to meet.

(Bed height IS part of the new draft standards because of just the problem you are having. Once those standards take effect, the bed height will be set the same as toilet height.)

I can't see whether there is a platform under the bed or if it is open. My advice is to call Housekeeping and tell them that your bed is too high and you need the mattress placed on the floor (check first that would not be too low for you). You can also request a bath chair if thst would help you with the shower situation. The bath chair can be placed into the tub, you sit on it from outside the tub and then swing your legs into the tub. Those can be requested from Housekeeping. My one warning is to look at it carefully before using it. We got a wobbly one from Housekeeping in October at OKW.

About the other things -
room with roll in shower - that depends on how the reservation and the request was made. If it was truely a request ("I would like a room with a roll in shower",) then it is just a request that may or may not have been met. If you said you needed one, it should have been guaranteed. When you made the reservation thru Disney reservation for a need, they should have checked with the department called Special Reservations to make sure there actually was a room with a roll in shower available for your dates.
Then it would have been blocked for you and should nit have been 'given away' to another guest. If you went thru a travel agent, you have no way of knowing whether they listed it as a need or a request.

Room location - the current ADA Guidelines ( and the draft ones that are nit in place yet) say that handicapped accessible rooms should not be segregated in one spot, but need to be distributed around the resort. Because if that, some handicaaped accessible rooms will be farther away from everythng and some closer. The location is a request that may or may not be met.

I would encourage you to keep some notes about your experience and contact WDW after you return home.

 

[Mary976]

So sorry to hear you are having these difficulties! Is there anything that the resort manager might be able to do for you? Even if they aren't technically "required" to do something, I wonder if a sympathetic manager could assist you somehow.

Good luck,
Mary

 

[kaytieeldr]

Sue (and Alex, of course) - that looks like a bed frame, not a platform. As such, Maintenance* should be able to disassemble it and place the mattress & box spring directly on the floor. I don't know how tall the OP is or what the mobility issues are, but getting up from a slightly-too-low bed at OKW was a thousand times easier than getting into it when it was too high.

It appears - based on the placement of the chair - that the OP's issues are similar to mine. My more recent solution was to purchase and pack an E-Z Foldz stepstool. It's nine inches high when open and holds up to 300 pounds, and it folds to two inches thick. I know, it doesn't help on the current trip but it's something to consider for the future. For the first trip in four years (Pop Century exempted because the beds ARE a reasonable height!) I didn't have to ask a hotel for special arrangements or assistance. Sue, I can repeat my Las Vegas "horror" story in this thread if you want

*Member Services assured me I had an accessible room with a roll-in shower. They were right - but unlike my first stay, the beds in this room were the same height as in all the other rooms; in fact, the CM with whom I spoke wasn't aware they had any low beds! At any rate, while I was out of the room the first day, Maintenance came and removed the frame from the bed I'd be using. That made it about knee height - and if I needed help getting up out of bed, there was the nightstand for support.

 

[SueM in MN]

That's OK. You don't need to repeat your experience.

I agree the picture looks like just s bedframe (actually, it looks like the bedframes that were in yhe resort when it opened). I have seen beds that look like it's just a frame, but has a platform further in. They do that because the platform covers the floor so it's easier to clean.
They should be able to figure out some way to help you though.

 

[OneLittleSpark]

This might seem an odd question, but are there two matresses on the bed? I've had a few beds before that were rather high, because they actually had two matresses, one on top of the other. If this is the case, Mousekeeping should be able to take one of the matresses off for the length of your trip. It may not be the case for you, but it's worth checking!

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

This might seem an odd question, but are there two matresses on the bed? I've had a few beds before that were rather high, because they actually had two matresses, one on top of the other. If this is the case, Mousekeeping should be able to take one of the matresses off for the length of your trip. It may not be the case for you, but it's worth checking!

Indeed looks like a very high matrass, so this might be a good option.


Seems like it's hit or miss with this subject. I've had beds that are normal height (yeiks) and lower ones at the same resort. Didn't know until I ran into the heigher bed and quickly learned there are apparantely 2 different heights available at least at that resort (CBR). Nobody really seemed to know which room had which bed, though. I decided to stick with the heigher bed as that was a trip where we had 2 rooms. Would've been a pain to find connecting rooms with a lower bed. Plus we were at THE best location possible and I had somebody there to help me if needed. Next trip if it should happen again, I'm not staying put though.

With this in mind, I would talk to a resort manager and ask if it's possible to check out -or let them- other rooms with roll in showers as they open up. This way it's an easy check to see if it's got a lower bed and if so; switch rooms.


I've since learned and mentioned this to the SN department when making new reservations. Did work for our recent trip, allthough that then showed new problems with the bed. Getting a lower bed this solotrip should work out, knock on wood. If I heard the CM correctly, I heard her mutter the roomnumber. If that is true and it stays the same, I know I'm set. If not, oh well. Thankfully I've got a warm bound with the resort manager.

 

[loadsapixiedust]

That bed looks very high. We stayed at POR last December and had 2 connecting rooms in the Alligator Bayou section. The HA room had a much lower bed than those in the standard room. You can see from the height of the bedside cabinet in the photo that bed is high, the HA room had a (king) bed that was a good 8 to 10 inches lower than the cabinet top.