Handicap rooms?

[dan and scott]

I am taking my grandmother for a stay in September and have booked a dediicated handicapped 2 bedroom. Does anyone know what the major differences will be? I am assuming that the kitchen will be larger to accomidate the wheelchair, but anything else?

Dan

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

There will be bars in the bathroom (beside the toilet), and rather than a tub, you'll have a roll-in shower, with a flip down seat. Oh, and the bathroom sink will have no cabinates under it and should allow for a wheelchair.

The kitchen isn't really larger, but there are no cabinates under the sink and the sink sits a little lower (and because no cabinates, no garbage disposal).

This is based on what we had in the HCA GV - there may be slight differences for a 2BR.

Also, our experience with the GV was that the master bedroom bathroom was the only bathroom which was HCA - I'm not sure what they would do with a 2BR - that is, not sure if it's the studio bath, master bath or both that would be HCA.

 

[Mary Ellen]

When my brother stays with us, or we with them, we stay in a handicap unit.

In a BWV 2-br handicap unit, the kitchen will be a little larger to allow for the 5 (?) foot turning area a wheelchair requires. The microwave will be on the counter, rather than over the stove. Since the kitchen is a little bigger, the living area will be a little smaller. If I remember correctly, the counter eating area is missing.

In the master bath, the stall shower will be a roll-in (no door or lip). There will be a shower curtain. The shower is larger and will have a fold down seat as mentioned above. There will still be the separate 'whirlpool' tub. We actually like the roomier handicap shower better than the 'regular' version, which seems cramped by comparison.

The entire unit will be handicap accessible. Since the older handicap GV at OKW has an upper floor (only accessible by stairs), I can understand why they didn't make the upper bathrooms accessible. I'd heard that the new buildings would have a totally accessible GV, since there is an elevator, but I've also heard that MS isn't booking people that require a wheelchair into the upper floor units of the elevator building (in case of fire). I don't understand this reasoning because BWV has handicap units above the ground floor.

 

[SueM in MN]

We just came back from WDW, staying in a 2 bedroom at OKW the first 4 days, then VWL for 3 days then back at OKW. Our first OKW stay was in building 62 on 2nd floor and the second stay was in building 62 on third floor. We travel with a DD who is not able to walk at all and uses a wheelchair full time. MS was aware of this when we made our reservation and it was on our reservation. In March of 2001, we stayed in a second floor 2 bedroom unit in Building 64. We did not have a handicapped unit any of those times, but MS was well aware that we had someone in a wheelchair (they could see her sitting next to us when we checked in). A CM told me that buildings 62, 63, 64 are in high demand. Some people request them by number because they are the newest, some want them because they have an elevator and they also fit the most common requests (close to bus stop and close to Hospitality House/ main pool). So people with wheelchairs who want those units are more likely to be guaranteed a ground floor room in another building.
I walked around all floors of building 62 to see if I could tell whether (or which) units were handicapped accessible, but I couldn't see any difference.
If you are staying at OKW, the size of the handicapped accessible unit is not different and the room arrangements are the same as the regular unit. The OKW rooms are pretty easy to get around in a wheelchair because they are bigger than the BW or WL villas. The regular unit at VWL was pretty tight with a wheelchair.