Do swimming pool lifts have to be at every pool in a place like a resort? Joe Zesski answers the question in this week’s Ask About the ADA episode on whether all pools need lifts or only one must be nearby to service all of them. For a transcript of this episode, please email northeastada@cornell.edu.
Pool Lifts Episode 2 Draft(1) [MUSIC PLAYING] JOE ZESSKI: Hello. Welcome to Ask about the ADA, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act. I'm Joe Zesski, the program manager here at the Northeast ADA Center. And we are here to answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it might apply to your everyday life. On this edition of the podcast, we're going to explore an area where we often get a lot of questions, especially during the summer and leading up to it. [MUSIC PLAYING] That topic is going to be pool access. We get calls from businesses, particularly from hotels, but also from counties, municipalities with questions about, how do we provide pool access? What is pool access? And what are the requirements? This week's edition of Ask about the ADA is going to focus on one question in particular that we often get. And I will read from an email that someone has sent us with this particular issue. "Do swimming pool lifts have to be located at every pool in a resort? Can just one be provided that is close to several pools if it can serve all of them?" And the answer to this question is no. Every pool must have its own lift available to it. And so moving a lift from pool to pool is not an option under the regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The regulations state that a pool lift has to be able to be operated independently by a person with a disability and must be available whenever the pool is open for use. This means, essentially, that a pool lift has to be fixed in place whenever a pool is open to the public for swimming. Being fixed in a particular location is important. And that's because if someone is using a pool lift, you can't have it moved and thereby leaving the person without a way to get out of the pool to exit the water if they need to. That leads to a health and safety issue. And so pool lifts essentially must be fixed in place while the pool is open for use. Now, if the pool is closed to the public, then the lift could be moved. So if a pool is closed for the season, then the pool lift can be moved. Or if it is after hours and the public is no longer able to access the pool, then the lift could be moved or covered. But while that pool is open to the public and available for use, the pool lift has to be in place and available to people with disabilities to be able to access the water. So that's this week's edition of Ask about the ADA. If you have a question about the ADA or anything else related to disability, we will try our best to answer it. Feel free to send us a question through our website, northeastada.org. You can also call us if you are in the New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, or US Virgin Island area at 1-800-949-4232. You can look for us on social media. Just look for @northeastada. I'd like to thank Will Warren our student producer who helps to create these podcasts. Thank you as well to Peter Quinn of the YTI media team for helping to do final touch-ups and polishing for the podcast. And thank you all for listening. I hope you will continue to engage and join the conversation. [MUSIC PLAYING]