THEN AND NOW

THEN ...

In 1995, newly planned wheelchair access docks in the Newport Beach

Harbor Marina put the seaside community on the map as the first in the

county to do so. New access rules for waterways stemming from the 1990

Americans with Disabilities Act required renovated or new docks to be

handicapped accessible.

“This is something that has not been addressed before in earlier ADA

remediation,” said Margaret Young, co-owner and vice president of Shogren

& Associates, the Garden Grove-based engineering firm that designed the

marina’s first handicapped ramp.

“There aren’t too many brand-new docks or marinas, but the ones that

need rehabilitation will have to provide access to people who are

handicapped,” Young said.

The first handicapped-accessible ramp was estimated at $20,000 and was

to have bars with complete guard rails. The ramp would be 100-feet long

with resting platforms every 30 feet.

“This time our job was simplified, since the entire marina will be

demolished and reconfigured,” Young said. “We designed this without

encroaching on any dock space or taking up any boat slips.”

American Disabilities Act regulations became effective for water

facilities in 1995 and as a result all docks and marinas devoting more

than 20% of space to public use had to provide handicapped access.

The feeling at the time was that ultimately all public marinas would

need to come up to code.

NOW... As a whole the marine industry has been slow toward adapting

to the requirements, said Fun Zone Boat Co. dock master Willem Wiessner.

“We’re the rarity,” Wiessner said.

He estimated that about 20% of the docks in Newport Harbor have been

renovated to be wheelchair accessible.

The varying sizes of boat entrances and costs associated with the

projects could be reasons why change has been so slow, Wiessner said. In

order to be wheelchair accessible, larger boats with higher entrance

ports would require an elevated ramp placed on the dock.

The docks operated by the Fun Zone Boat Co. were renovated in 1995.

The cost of building one of the ramps was more than three times over

budget, but the overall experience with the public has made up for any

lost revenue, Wiessner said. Wiessner said he believes that prior to

the 1980s, society as a whole had not totally accepted handicapped

people. He said a close friend of his who was injured in an accident and

was later confined to a wheelchair gave him insight into the life of

handicapped person.

“They want to be independent and it is their right,” Wiessner said. “It

is our duty as an operator that is entrusted to provide access to the

ocean to do so.”

-- Amy R. Spurgeon