UFV will be addressing the failure of a wheelchair automatic door opener in the newly renovated B building in single-stall bathrooms this week. The issue occurred during a series of accessibility renovations to bathrooms in B building.
UFV approved the completion of the project, however it was not until recently that the problem with the automatic door opener was noticed. According to Mark Goudsblom, director of campus planning and facilities management, no one is known to have issued a complaint but it took some time for UFV’s planning and facilities unit to find out.
One of the two single-stall bathrooms have a nonfunctioning wheelchair automatic door opener, but the accessibility issue is scheduled to be fixed by Friday of this week. The single-stall bathrooms on the first floor of UFV’s B building are available for public use.
“One door is broken and the other one works because the wiring to the button was cut during the demolition,” Goudsblom said. “So when we put them back into service we found that out.”
There have also been a couple improvements to these single-stall bathrooms and renovations are currently underway for the creation of barrier-free bathrooms on the third floor of B building.
New flooring has been installed in the single-stall bathrooms in order to make the flooring easier to clean. Add-ons to these first-floor bathrooms have also included the accessibility handles around the toilets.
The third-floor washrooms will be gendered washrooms and are currently under construction. According to Goudsblom, the new barrier-free design will hopefully facilitate access to bathrooms for people who are visually impaired or physically disabled. Goudsblom said that it provides a safer environment when there are no doors, as people can be heard calling for help in case of an emergency. The third-floor bathroom renovations are in their final stage and are expected to be completed by the end of next week.
Additional improvements in B building include a new water bottle fill-up station in between the single-stall washrooms. There are also new bathrooms in A building that have the same design as the newly built third-floor B building bathrooms.
