Monday Morons--The Handicapped Sign

I don't have much in the way of morons to write about today. Over the weekend I already wrote about the skyride accident, so that was really enough about morons for now. I hope that everyone got a chance to read the last post.

Anyway, yesterday we were getting hamburgers at Chaps. I'm not into hamburgers so much as some people, but Chaps does make a good hamburger. Unfortunately, the good hamburgers with the grilled onions and such are a bit messy. So when we were getting ready to leave I went to the ladies room to wash up.

So on the door to the ladies room was the handicapped access sign. It's the blue and white sign with the stick-figure pictured sitting in a wheelchair, much the same as the handicapped parking sign outside that keeps most of us from parking in the spot right next to the door. Except for when the handicapped parking sign is in a place that I don't expect to find it, I tend to not even notice the things. But I noticed this one, maybe because I know that some of my readers either have to be in wheelchairs themselves or have to deal with them because a close friend or family member has to use them.

So there is this sign on the door of the ladies room, but there's not a similar sign on the door of the mens room.

Does that mean that the ladies room is fit for use by people in wheelchairs, but the mens room is not? Or does it just mean that they are both fit for use by people in wheelchairs, but there is only a sign on the ladies room? I suppose that the sign on the mens room could have fallen off, but if that's the case it fell off several months ago and they still haven't fixed it. I don't go to the place that often, but now that I think about it I noticed this last time we were there.

I'm a grown woman and after a number of years of going to restaurants and such I have finally gotten over the fear of asking strangers to direct me to the ladies room. I still don't like it too much. I don't like having to ask about such things and I don't like places that seem to have the restrooms hidden someplace. Worse yet are the trendy places that will have the whole waitstaff sing or cheer while they all escort you to the place in question. Chaps is not one of those places, but I have been to a few of them. And, if we get a really big group from the club together, sometimes they will all decide to sing "We know where you're going" if you try to discreetly leave the table.

So how would it be if you were a man in a wheelchair and you had to use the restroom at this place. Possibly you have already had to ask someone where the mens room was, and then after you find it you see that there's a handicapped access sign on the ladies room door and not on the mens room door. So now you have to ask someone if you are really supposed to use the ladies room or if the mens room just isn't properly marked.

Not that it would really be a problem for anyone if the gentleman in question did use the ladies room. Chaps is a small place, and their restrooms are not very big. The ladies room doesn't have multiple stalls, and it's the kind for only one person that you lock the door behind you. And the gentleman is not going to catch our estrogen, and we will not catch his testosterone after he leaves. It's just that it's embarrassing to have to use the facilities that are marked for use by the opposite sex.

So I don't know. I don't know if the sign for the mens room fell off the door and they are just too lazy to fix it, or if they couldn't afford to pay for an extra couple of support rails to be placed in the mens room, or if the bit of extra equipment in the mens room made it too crowded for people with wheelchairs or what.

It just struck me as odd, and I wondered if it would upset their customers with wheelchairs.