OKW Resort Accessible rooms

[thop529]

The last time we stayed at OKW Resort in an accessible room the roll in shower was horrible. The seat was on the side and had the grab bar behind it which did not give you much room. It was also almost impossible to transfer to. I finally had to get a chair from the dinning room in order to sit on that to take a shower

I guess my question is... Is all of the showers like that? I guess what I need is a shower like at POP or the All Stars that have the bench on the back wall with the personalized shower head. The room at OKW was not like that.

They really need to get a person in a wheelchair to help plan out these rooms. Just not at Disney, but every hotel room.

I have found some to be very accessible, while others were rough to navagate.

Do you think they would have the layout of the rooms at check in so I could take a look to see if they work for me? Just don't want to be put in the same situation again I guess.

 

[Nanajo1]

The last time we stayed at OKW Resort in an accessible room the roll in shower was horrible. The seat was on the side and had the grab bar behind it which did not give you much room. It was also almost impossible to transfer to. I finally had to get a chair from the dinning room in order to sit on that to take a shower

I got a chair from the balcony to use in the roll in shower the grab bar was right into my back.

They really need to get a person in a wheelchair to help plan out these rooms. Just not at Disney, but every hotel room.

My feelings exactly.

I know not every accommodations will fit everyone but I do wonder if a real person actually tries them out.

 

[LilyWDW]

It's not so much Disney as current accessible layouts are still not all that great. While new construction may have to meet great requirements, it is possible that these rooms to have been renovated into existing construction. When this happens, requirements are sometimes waved due to area restraints.

This does not sound like an acceptable design layout for new construction, but I would have to check my notes and my code book to be sure. However, like I said, the requirements can change for renovation.

 

[SueM in MN]

This is a link to the Common Problems in Construction for hotels from the ADA site.

This link is a questionnaire for owners of facilities to survey/look at their facility to see how well it "matches" the guidelines. The bathroom info is about 2/3 of the way down the page.

One of the problems with accessible rooms is that as requirements change, exactly how rooms are laid out may vary according to when they were built. Another problem is that there is no one arrangement that is the best arrangement for all people with all disabilities. There may be a best for paraplegics who have good upper body strength. There may be a different best for a person with MS who is unsteady; another best for someone who has paralysis or weakness on one side because of a stroke. Then, there could be other bests for people who need assistance -actually there may be different bests for them, depending on how big they are and how much/what type of assistance they need.

What would be nice would be if WDW had some links with measurements and pictures of the standard roll in shower at each resort. At least then you would have some idea of what should be at your resort before you get there (and whether it would work for you).

The roll-in shower at the GV we stayed at in OKW was one with the seat folding down from the side of the shower, about 1/3 of the way toward the front of the shower. The grab bar was at the side. It worked very well for us, but my youngest DD is quite slim and short (5 feet tall and 84 pounds). My older Dd and I got on our swimsuits so we could help her take a shower. I can see how someone larger than my DD might think that seat was not large enough. I imagine that all the roll in showers at OKW would be similar because most of the resort was built in the same time period. If any were built differently, they would probably be in buildings 62, 63 and 64, which were planned and built well after the rest of the resort was finished.
POP and All Stars were built quite a bit later and I think were built according to the plan on the links that I posted.