By Tammara Hall

On any given day you can find Royal Palm Towers resident Joseph Lowery downtown visiting with business owners and conducting research for local government. Mr. Lowery, is the newly hired ADA (American Disabilities Act) consultant for the Fort Myers Housing Authority. While many advances have been made to assist physically challenged individuals in having access to buildings, strolling from street to street and utilizing public facilities, there is still a lot to be done. Joe is unique in that you won’t find him walking along First Street or through Centennial Park, instead he has to maneuver his motorized wheel chair throughout the downtown to shop, conduct business or just visit with friends at a local restaurant.

Joe has been confined to a wheel chair since he was eight years old when a drunk driver hit him. His recovery left him with serious nerve damage that does not allow him to walk any longer. But this challenge did not slow Joe down. He graduated from high school in 1980 and went on to complete the equivalent of two years of college at Miami/Dade Community College in one year. He then completed his education with a scholarship to the University of Miami. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration with an emphasis on Hotel Management.

A resident of Royal Palm Towers for the past couple of years, Joe enlisted FMHA Executive Director Danny Queen on various occasions to join him after work to stroll around downtown. He used these walks to demonstrate to Mr. Queen how difficult some sidewalk ramps were for manual wheel chairs and which buildings had poor access ramps. From these conversations, Mr. Queen inquired for Joe’s opinion on the FMHA facilities and if we were doing everything we could to assist in the environmental design for the physically challenge. Joe smiled and said we have a ways to go. With that thought, Mr. Queen contracted with Joe to evaluate the three elderly developments, Bonair Towers, Flossie M. Riley Garden Apartments and Royal Palm Towers along with the FMHA Administration Building to determine if we were meeting all ADA requirements. Additionally, Mr. Queen requested that Joe advise the FMHA as to what improvements beyond the ADA requirements we could do to make our property more convenient and user friendly to the physically challenge.

Joe was thrilled to have the opportunity to provide this information. For many years he had been requesting improvements upon ADA requirements. "To often people or businesses will do just what is required by ADA to get by. For very little or no extra cost, a few inches in width or a few degrees in an angle of a ramp can make all the difference for a person in a wheel chair or walker. When Mr. Queen hired me to make my analysis of the FMHA properties he wanted me to make practical recommendations that not only included what was required by law, but what would make sense to assist those who are physically challenged," commented Joe. Some of Joe’s practical recommendations included u-bars in the rest rooms. ADA normally requires a bar in the back of the toilet along with a side bar. But from a practical stand point the back bar is of little use and one side bar does not give a physically challenged person enough stability. Therefore, by placing the side bar on the right and a u-bar on the left, a physically challenged person can get more stability and will have less chance of slipping or falling. Another recommendation was increasing the widths of doorways and ramps. Many times architects or designers use the recommended ADA widths without taking into consideration how many wheel chairs are still manual, and allowing for the widths of the hands on the side of the wheels. Many physically challenged people get their knuckles scraped when passing through these doorways. Another common mistake in restrooms is the placement of mirrors. Rather than mounting them flush with the wall if they are slightly angled away from the wall about 30 degrees a person in a wheel chair has the opportunity to utilize them.

Working with David Moore, the FMHA architect of Moore and Spence, Joe reviewed and illustrated for David the issues he placed in his analysis. Together they are putting together a recommendation and cost evaluation for review by the FMHA Building and Grounds Committee.

From his work with the Fort Myers Housing Authority Joe has been contacted to do the same type of analysis for Lee County. Working with their Director of ADA requirements, he will review all county buildings and make his recommendations for improvement.