Bermuda is not an easy or affordable place to retrofit or install accessibility infrastructure, especially in the City of Hamilton, where many buildings are small, old and built on a hill.
This can make it hard to make mobility easier for those with disabilities or who simply find getting around difficult, such as those recovering from medical treatment, seniors or parents using pushchairs.
In spite of these barriers, and even where it may be cost prohibitive or logistically impossible to make a building, restaurant or retail space fully accessible, some City businesses have still managed to go above and beyond to make a positive difference.
Keith Simmons is a disabilities advocate who has been in a wheelchair for more than 40 years, and Vanessa Bean is a senior interior designer at OBMI. Together, they explained which organisations should be commended for their positive changes to make their premises more accessible to everyone.
Vineyard Vines and Waterfront Man
These retail neighbours receive very high praise from Mr Simmons for their investment in accessibility infrastructure. Not only are their entrances wide, with automatic doors and no step to negotiate on entry, but, once inside, the stores are easy to navigate with a wheelchair, even though they both have stairs towards the back.
The stairs in Vineyard Vines are high so they required a platform lift. The stairs are not as numerous in Waterfront Man, so they only needed to install a ramp. Mr Simmons finds both of these easy to use. “They were good,” he said of the stores owners.
Bank of Butterfield
The main entrance to Bank of Butterfield has nine steps, however Mr Simmons doesn’t need to use that doorway. Further down the street is an accessibility entrance with cedar doors that open automatically. Once through those, a gentle ramp leads to wide sliding doors, which also open automatically.
“Some time ago, those cedar doors, you had to pull them open and they didn’t have the automatic wide doors, so I applaud them for doing all of this, making those accessible because those cedar doors were very heavy.”
Once inside the bank, an elevator takes him up to the banking hall. There is one concern however. The fire alarm, as required by code, can cause the elevator area to lock down: “I was in here when the fire alarm went off,” he shared. “The elevator locked. The only way out is that way,” he said, pointing to the main entrance with the steps down to the pavement. He thought he couldn’t get out.
When learning of this incident, a Bank of Butterfield spokesman said that “elevator and lobby doors only lock if a smoke detector in that area activates, to contain smoke and fire.”
In addition, he confirmed, “evacuation chairs are onsite, and our fire marshals are trained to call the facilities team for assistance when needed.”
He added that they continue to review procedures and staff training to ensure safe evacuation for everyone and have invited Mr Simmons in to discuss his experience with them.
Spexx
A client of Ms Bean’s, Spexx Eyecare, renovated and moved to their current location on the ground floor of the International Centre on Bermudiana Road in 2018. Like in many Bermudian buildings, space was at a premium, but in terms of accessibility, Ms Bean said: “They’ve done their best.”
In addition to moving to a ground floor space, they “feathered” their front entrance and “created an open space within the exam room so persons with wheelchairs can come and roll right in without having to get out of their seat”.
Feathering, she explained, “is a technique that we can use when installing floors if it’s a transition of two inches or less. They can create an almost invisible ramp in the interior space and feather it from one level to another. It’s a gradual change that you don’t even notice, over a stretch of space.”
They also “considered a system to help persons with disabilities to be able to use their washroom”. This washroom isn’t even within the Spexx space, but “they considered it – and I think that matters”.
Mailboxes
Another company that didn’t have a ground floor location and wanted to move to improve accessibility was Mailboxes.
The company also made some interior adjustments.
“We included a multi-level reception area for persons to be able to wheel up to, or for shorter people, like me, to not have to be at the highest level,” Ms Bean explained.
Washington Mall
The Washington Mall, Mr Simmons said, “has made a good go of it”. All the entrances have wide automatic doors. Where the levels change on the ground floor, there is an easy to use ramp, and upstairs the bathrooms are fully accessible.
However, in order to get from one section of the Mall to the other, Mr Simmons has to go out and around to the Church Street entrance. This is because there are stairs linking the old to the new sections, and the lift that was installed next to these stairs has a weight limit of 250lb. “My chair alone is 200-odd lbs,” he said.
Astwood Arms and Port O Call
With fully accessible rest rooms, that include comfort height toilets and accessible stalls, as well as ramps leading into their establishments, Mr Simmons described the owners of the Astwood Arms and Port O Call as “good guys”.
Other Front Street establishments he singled out for praise include The Front Yard for the ramp to the left of the main entrance, which gives him access to the bar and seating areas, 59 Front for their automatic doors, which have a sensor so he can drive in without having to wait, Brew for the ramp leading up to their entryway, and local insurer and pension plan provider, Freisenbruch, for installing both a ramp and automatic doors that can be operated by a press button.
