(This is our first guest post, submitted by Sujit Singh.? Thanks, Sujit.? Hope many of you will chime in on this pertinent topic.)
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Having a disability doesn?t mean that you can?t still be independent. For me, one of the greatest gifts from having a disability was my ability to grow stronger mentally. After many years of being told that I couldn?t do certain things, I set out to accomplish all of those things that people said? I couldn?t do. You could say that with all the negativity that surrounded me, I set out to create a disability bucket list to prove that I could do all the things that anyone else could do, and even do them better.
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Before I could make physical changes, the first and biggest obstacle that I had to face was changing the mental aspect of how? the non-disabled viewed those with a disability. Thinking about all the places in the community that create a barrier for the disabled,? I decided to start my focus ?at the gym/fitness center.
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At the age of thirty, I never wanted my disability to stop my ability to stay active, but with so many different types of gyms and the high price of attending them, I had no idea where to start. My friends who go to gyms informed me that with my disability, my best bet for achieving what I wanted out of a workout was to get a trainer. Trusting them as I do, I did just that.
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I was very hesitant to go to a gym at first. My insecurities kicked in as if I were back in elementary school, feeling like all the eyes were on me. Having to learn to work out differently from everyone else made it feel like I was on the playground at recess and had to pretend I knew how to play on the jungle gym when internally, I wasn?t even sure my hands would hold onto the monkey bars. I tried working out the first few times by myself just to test my own skills without having anyone watching my every move, but what I quickly learned was that I had more pain than pleasure from working out because I knew that my form wasn?t right being mostly left side dominant.
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In doing some research and going around town looking at fitness centers , it definitely looked like fitness centers were some of the last places? to accommodate people with disabilities. Some of the fitness centers lack the ramps and wide doors that they are required to have ,but getting through the door is just the beginning of the issues that people with disabilities face daily as they go to the gym. One issue that I faced right away was the monthly price that we have to pay.
My main concern here is that while we do become clients of the fitness centers, we are unable to use the same equipment that everyone can. I am lucky enough to be able to use a majority of the equipment at most gyms, but many in the disability community are not. In asking if there is a reduced fee for those with disabilities, I was told that most gyms provide a student, veteran, and senior citizen discount, but not one for those with a disability. When asked why that is, they told me that they ?have never been asked?, so I said,? I am asking? and they told me ?we?ll look into it.? Why do these centers think about the students, veterans, and senior citizen populations, while the disability population doesn?t get any consideration without someone? asking? first?
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I ended up paying $60/hr for my trainer. My session with a trainer was the first and last time I trained with a trainer. In meeting with my trainer (let us call him James for this blogs sake), I learned that he had no experience in training a person with a disability. Had I known that, I wouldn?t have signed up to train with him. During our conversation, he informed me that? the trainers at this gym had very little to no training in how to train a person with a disability, so changing trainers was not an option. I had to spend five to seven minutes each exercise training him on how to train me. So, in a sixty minute training session, I only got to work out in a correct form for fifteen minutes.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) Standards for Accessible Design which resulted from the 2010 ADA amendments mandate significant accessibility improvements for fitness centers and health clubs. While many disability advocates praise the new regulations as a step in the right direction, the majority say they don?t go far enough.?
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While the fitness centers in the area have acknowledged the need to make changes and that they have more educating to do, I wonder: ?Will they do what they say they are going to do?? If I had to guess, my answer would be no. Most of the people I talked to say that they are disability-friendly and? will do what they have to do to work with those that come into their place of business. Why, then, ?did it take my visit to their gym ?to acknowledge it? If they already had us in mind, they would have already had wider doors for wheelchairs, closed captioning? for persons who are Deaf, headphones for persons who are blind, discounts for persons with disabilities, and most of all an understanding that we can do things just like they can, if not better.
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Source: http://letstalkdisability.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/fitness-centers-do-they-really-think-about-us/
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