The schools at Baldwin City Kansas should never have been able to participate in any kind of function especialy KIDS DISTRICT! For one I am a coach that happens to be in a wheelchair and not able to get down the stairs in the jr high.To have such a huge tournament in a school that can't accommodate coach's that may have a dissability.

My first question is, why did your club not offer to hold this tournament? I believe Baldwin was the only club that volunteered.

Next year when you and your club run the district tournament, I am sure it will be a lot better.

Personally, I felt the tournament was run as well as possible, with the facilities available.

i believe that was cold hearted to say everyone has the right to be able to move freely and baldwin was unable to accommodate. this coach could not coach his kid because he was unable to move freely. regardless how you feel the tournament was ran. this is a school and they need to have a way for disable people to get court side with out causing a scene or drawling attention. it was poorly planed and discriminating to all who have disabilties.

Let's be careful in what we're implying. I'm not sure of the exact wording of the law and as it pertains to accomodations for people with disabilities.

Lets take a look at the building codes of existing buildings. You'll notice that nowhere in the quote does it say that access must be granted for all Handicapped Individuals. In fact, it says that in some instances, it's impractical. At the end of the selection, it does talk about appropriate alternates. An appropriate alternate could be to not allow WC access. There's no law that says the individual "has to have access." In fact in a building code for historical buildings (granted the school is not one), accessability can be denied due to the historical integrity of a building.

"Existing Buildings
In the case of material alterations of existing buildings, the adoption without modification of the guidance in this document may not, in all circumstances, be appropriate. In particular, the adherence to guidance, including codes, standards or technical specifications, intended for application to new work may be unduly restrictive or impracticable. Buildings of architectural or historical interest are especially likely to give rise to such circumstances. In these situations, alternative approaches based on the principles contained in the document may be more relevant and should be considered."

I bring all of this up not to sound insensitive, but to bring us to a sense of reality. The reality is that reasonable accomodations have to be made to buildings to allow HC individuals access into the building. It does not however mean that access should be unlimited. There are certain instances that such access is not cost effective or feasible. Hence, access to the gym needs to be granted so a person can view the games/activities at the school. It does not mean that it has to be matside on mat 3.

Having a close friend that's a quadraplegic, we understand that there are places we just can't go because of difficulty in design. In fact, when we hosted the boccia ball national championships in Topeka right before the ParaOlympics, we had to constantly consider 100+ contestants in wheel chairs and how they were going to maneuver in the facility. Takes you out of your box when you plan.

Most individuals with disabilities understand there are obstacles in the road everywhere in life and design game plans to accomodate those situations when accomodations don't exist for them.

For example, they may ask a coach to fill in and then have someone videotape the match. Then their son would come up to the stands to critique the match. Granted not the ideal situation, but one way to still be actively involved.

Two, contact the facility ahead of time to figure out any possibilities. If none exist, see first idea.

There are multitudes of ideas that exist. Rarely, if ever, do I read about individuals that feel so slighted, that they have to come onto the internet to complain.

Just curious, did you pursue the other two options that I proposed?

YOU KNOW I REALLY DON'T CARE! NO MATTER HOW YOU SPIN IT!!! I STILL BELIEVE THAT EVERYONE ONE HAS THE RIGHT AND DISABLED PEOPLE HAD THEIR RIGHT TAKEN FROM THEM. BALDWIN IS THE FIRST PLACE THIS YEAR THAT WE WENT TOO THAT WE RAN INTO THIS TROUBLE. IT WAS POORLY THOUGHT OUT!!!! AND THAT IS THAT.

Mean Green,

I missed the "spin". At what point in time did I spin anything? All I did was state the obvious and legality that currently exists.

1. It is my understanding that appropriate accomodations of building need made for HC access. When a building is built before legislation, some things have to go into consideration, which the law does. Appropriate and equal are two different things altogether. For example the rope climb during gym class (actually I don't think they do this anymore due to liabilty but it does prove a point). Just because my buddy can't climb the rope doesn't mean we build a contraption to help him to the top. It would be inappropriate. Equal accessibility is a goal, not a right. Appropriate and equal are two different things.

Individuals with handicaps realize there are obstacles in life and some of those obstacles are unaviodable. For those obstacles that can be avoided, they make special arrangements and notify those in charge.

When my buddy and I go to Applebee's, I call ahead of time to reserve a table. I explain my buddy's situation and instruct them to sit us in an area that is not high traffic because his chair will be in the way. Maybe I'm overly cautious/concerned, but it's what I do to make the situation more accomodating for all involved. Sure, I could just show up with him and expect them to make arrangements, but what if we're at the height of dinner on a Friday night? Will we be able to be accomodated? I'm guessing probably not or if we were accomodated, it would be in a situation that is troublesome.

Again, that's just us being responsible people. We could go through life demanding things, but it doesn't mean it will get done. Knowing the good people of Baldwin City, I bet if you were to contact them in advance, they would have been more than gracious in helping out in whatever way they could.

Hence, I ask the question again, did you forwarn the VOLUNTEERS that put the event together?

The lazy answer is "I really don't care, everyone has a right," and to that you are confused in what a "right" truly is.

Wanna debate "rights?" I'd love the challenge.

Understand, I'm totally in agreement with you in terms of appropriate accomodations should have been made only if the tournament organizers were made aware of such a need. Granted, most of the organizers may have seen this individual frequently during the season, but in the midst of putting something like this together - it's best to re-remind them that this needs addressed.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Baldwin moved the entire bracket of this coach's wrestler to the high school so that he could have access to the mat. What more do you want? I think that was a very reasonable accommodation.

LOOK PEOPLE ALL I AM SAYING IS I THINK THAT A SCHOOL SHOULD ALREADY HAVE ACCOMODATIONS IN PLACE
CONSIDERING IT IS A SCHOOL THAT DEALS WITH A LARGE RANGE OF STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILY AND GUESTS FROM OTHER SCHOOLS AND THEIR FAMILIES.AND YES THEY DID MOVE THIS COACH AND KID TO THE HIGHSCHOOL, AND YES THAT WAS VERY REASONABLE AND GREAT FOR THEM TO DO.
BUT I STILL BELIEVE THAT PLACES LIKE SCHOOLS SHOULD ALREADY HAVE HC EQUIPPED. FOR SITUATIONS LIKE THIS. WHAT DO WANT EVERY SINGLE HC PERSONS TO CALL AND MAKE THEM AWARE THAT THEY ARE HC.THAT IS ******* YOU KNOW I AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE MY FEELINGS ARE MY FEELINGS. THIS COACH IS NOT THE ONLY PERSON EVER TO GO TO BALDWIN THAT IS HC AND HE WON'T BE THE LAST.

All I was pointing out was that building codes of new buildings address this individual's concern. Laws have been put into place that require reasonable design implementations for existing buildings as long as it is reasonable and not extravagant in cost.

And yes, you are right, this is not the first, nor last HC individual to access the building. It is the first though to come on the board and complain about it.

And it does seem like BC did what they could upon learning of the situation (moving a bracket, etc.) and should be commended for it. Technically, they did not have to make such arrangements.

Hats of to BC for trying to make a situation right. Too bad the one that was affected by the improvement saw to it to bad mouth you after making an honest effort to make this individual's accomodations work out.