Media laden…
Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask your opinions on something.
To explain the situation a bit, I like to go swimming quite often. The first reason is that it’s fun, and the second is that it’s easy to do on my own. Just enter the pool and do laps. Basically, you can just swim in a square: follow the line to the other side of the pool, follow the wall to the line on the other side, and follow that one back to where you started.
Now, I have multiple pools in Amsterdam I normally go to. My main ones are Zuiderbad, Mirandabad, and Sloterparkbad.
And most important for this particular story, there is one pool I decided to avoid: Het Marnixbad.
The reason is their policy when it comes to people with a disability. Basically, their idea is that you’re not supposed to ask employees for help to get to the pool. Either you know the way by heart, you bring a personal guide with you, or you see enough to go on your own. The problem is that it takes time to learn the route by heart. Moreover, their lockers are all touchscreen-operated without voiceover, so there is no way I would be able to operate that on my own anyway.
Moreover, I long ago decided to not rely on personal guides for all my activities. The first reason is that you need to align your schedules with the personal guide, and that can be very tricky. The second is that you can easily ask other random people for help and get anything you want done that way. It is a lot simpler, and that way you have the freedom to do what you want when you want. Finally, if you take personal guides with you wherever you go, organizations and locations get used to it. They just expect you to bring a guide, and if you don’t, you’re shit out of luck.
Sadly, quite some organizations already think that way. Thankfully, most don’t.
Case in point: all the swimming pools I normally go to are a lot better. People can just help without it being a big hassle. I can swim; I have two swimming diplomas. I just need time to memorize the route, or someone to just quickly help me to the lockers and swimming pool.
About two years ago, I also tried Marnix, and both times it was a hassle. The employees of the pool itself were always more than willing to help, but policy was always that it isn’t supposed to be done.
After those two tries, I just decided to stop going there. The main reason is that there were a lot of good options in other places, and I didn’t want to give my money to an organization that behaves like this.
Now, we get to the main story. Unfortunately, the pools I normally go to are either closed for the summer or have different opening times for swimming. Most of them are only open for indoor lane swimming in the early morning and evening, not in the late morning/afternoon.
And Het Marnix is open in the afternoon, as one of the only ones I know.
So today, I decided to give it another try. I first went for a run this morning, and then decided I wanted to go swimming. I was also curious if things had changed in the meantime.
Everything went well at first – from going to the pool, swimming, and changing back. But on the way out one of the employees came to me. He told me that someone upstairs instructed him to tell me something. If I want to come here next time, I need to bring a guide. Basically, back to square one.
The employees were also obviously unhappy with the situation. Both the person helping me to the exit and the person who came to deliver the message told me I could always ask for them if they were working, and they would always be more than willing to help.
Now, the dilemma I want to present to you. This is something I have been struggling to find an answer to for most of my life.
In the end, you have the right to go do what you want. If I want to go swimming in that pool, they don’t have the right to stop me. If the people at the entrance don’t want to help, I can always ask other swimmers; that always works out. Or as I said, the people working at the pool are also always more than willing to help. I tried both options two years ago, and it works.
It is just uncomfortable and exhausting to go to a place where the default policy is basically that you’re not welcome. The only reason I even tried this time is because I didn’t have any choice for the time of day I wanted to go.
The other option is just to do what I have done: avoid the place and go somewhere else. I can just deal with it, go in the early mornings or evenings, and just avoid Het Marnix.
My heart tells me to pick the first option — to just confront them. I have the right to go wherever I want, and no one is going to tell me I am not welcome because of my disability. If they do, I will fight it all the way.
My head, on the other hand, says that it isn’t worth it. There are more important battles to fight and put your energy into. This is just an energy drain of negativity that really isn’t worth it.
I have gone back and forth between these two options, depending on the situation and my energy levels.
I am curious: in my situation, what would your answer be?
That’s it from me today.
Yours,
Ihab
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