First public pool with a change table, shower and hoist for Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

Location

A little back story

I’ll start with a little background story, which I feel provides insight into why accessibility and inclusion need to be front and centre through the design and building of any public facility.

The Albany Stadium Pool first opened its doors on 28th January 2017. Finlay and I were both excited because potentially it meant we could finally access a local pool.

Before it opened its doors we’d visited a pool along the Kapiti Coast, called Coastlands Aquatic Pool. Here is where I first laid eyes on a changing room that catered to Finlay’s access needs by providing a hoist, a range of slings and a change table. He couldn’t shower off, unfortunately, as the shower was over a fold-down seat, not the table. However, to finally have a facility to change Finlay out of his wet clothes and back into dry ones was a first for me. We were so excited to find this place that I decided to research, how many pools in New Zealand provided fully inclusive changing facilities. From that research I put together a blog post listing the Top Aquatic Centres in New Zealand for Inclusive Facilities. The result was a mixed bag of standards, but it highlighted how our regional towns were embracing accessibility and inclusion. It seemed unusual that Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland was so far behind with this inclusive thinking, despite having the largest disability population in Aotearoa New Zealand.

So, you can imagine how excited we were, to see if Auckland’s newest public aquatic pool was going to live up to all the media hype of being ‘accessible to all.’ Unfortunately, to our disappointment it not only failed to cater to our access needs, it omitted to include a disability changing room that was a usual standard seen in every public pool. This discovery prompted Finlay and I, along with other local people from the disability community, to advocate for our inclusion for the next six years.

So, six years on, the accessible changing facility has finally been included

I was keen to review this room constructively as it was touted to become a benchmark design for all future public pool developments in Auckland.

Firstly, I had to make sure I checked it out first before arriving with Finlay for a much-awaited swim. Pre-planning is essential to minimise health and safety risks for both Finlay and the support staff assisting him into the pool. I’m glad I did this because, unlike other pools outside Auckland, this changing room does not provide any slings to be used with the hoist. I noted there was still no information on the Council website regarding the new accessible changing facility. It would be good to mention to bring your sling.

Mobility Parking

Entry and signage

It is certainly not difficult to find the accessible facilities here as the room is well signposted. The reception staff and lifeguards are all equipped with access cards and are happy to show you the way. This was so much easier than being given a key or having camera security to open the door. An easy push-to-open green button at wheelchair-accessible height is located to the right of the door. You push it and the sliding door then opens to the changing room. The big endorsement signage for Lifemark and CCS Disability Action tells you that it’s got the thumbs up. This will be a first for Lifemark who usually concentrate their expertise on private residential builds. CCS Disability Action follows the building code and to date, we don’t have the change table and hoist in our building code standards.

Access to pools

In front of the changing room are two courtesy pool chairs and space to leave your mobility device whilst in the pool. A ramp takes you into one of the pools located to the right leaving the changing room area. Only one pool chair has a lap belt, the armrests do lift for transfers, but we didn’t easily see how to do this. To use these pool chairs we would need to tilt them back to keep Finlay securely in place. We would also need at least two people to support them, one to push the pool chair and the other to make sure Finlay doesn’t slip out. A Hippocampe pool chair would be better suited for his needs as it offers more recline. It is also a lot easier to hoist someone into a reclined pool chair as opposed the upright chairs we found available.

The changing room

The first thing that struck me looking around the room was the equipment inside. It was the same equipment commonly seen in every Changing Place public bathroom we’d visited in New Zealand. It consisted of the Arjo ceiling track hoist, along with the height-adjustable change bed. There was even the height-adjustable toilet and sink combination. The privacy curtain was around the toilet too as seen also in a Changing Place public toilet facility.

One big difference in this changing room (equipment-wise) from a Changing Place, is the addition of a fold-down shower seat. As Changing Places public bathrooms are generally designed for people needing assistance to change, we wondered how easy it would be to assist someone in using this shower seat. There, is minimal space on one side of the shower seat, and in front for a carer to assist. Ideally, two separate changing rooms for the two different users would have been the best course of action. Outside Auckland, it is common to see the carer-assist rooms alongside and in addition to the independent disability changing rooms. As space and retrofit cost was at a premium Albany Stadium Pools probably decided this room needed to cater to all access needs.

Lifemark, who are designers guided by Universal Design principles were consulted to make this room work for all disability. The question is, has function been accomplished here for everyone? We know the equipment itself will work, but will the space and layout? Considering the space, we need to fit a pool chair in here, a power chair, two support people and Finlay. We then need to manoeuvre the hoist safely from the mobility device to the changing table to the pool chair and back again. What we have learned over the years is functional space dictates how easy it is to perform a hoist transfer. If the space is too tight we could find a barrier to hoisting successfully. The only people who would have a clear idea of this would be the carers themselves.

The shower seat also made me question our Building Code Standards NZS 4121:2001, because of the style and placement of the shower seat. According to our building code a shower seat needs to be a minimum of 800mm. This is to ensure it is wide enough for people wanting to support themselves by having their feet up. The length of the shower hose looked like it could potentially get caught up in use and the grab rail was further to reach with a soap shelf in the way. Does this work well for a self-transferring wheelchair user? Or is it a “it’s better than nothing scenario?”

The change table

We are familiar with using the height-adjustable change table but noted that they didn’t have any ‘user instruction’ on the wall for those not. I was initially concerned that the shower hose was only available for the shower seat. However, it is long enough to reach the change table as well. The water conveniently drains through the change table and out through a pipe underneath to a catchment area. This innovative design leaves the floor free from excess water. No shelving or hooks were available to place items needed by the carer alongside the change table. We have become used to seeing this kind of attention to detail in Changing Places. These kinds of features are important as many tasks need to be executed in the space and kept clean and dry. For example, as well as changing clothes, we have to hygienically change bandaging for a stoma site.

Height-adjustable ‘carer-assist’ toilet versus a standard accessible toilet

The height-adjustable toilet has become almost a standard inclusion in a Changing Place. They are designed for those needing assistance via a hoist, or with one or two people to assist either side. The ability to adjust the height makes it even easier to assist/and for the person to perform a standing transfer without the use of a hoist. Changing Places NZ was the first to order these toilets in New Zealand, now they are becoming more mainstream.

I have included an image of the pool’s standard accessible toilet. The NZ building code specifies that a grab rail needs to be securely mounted on the wall for a user to self-transfer across from a wheelchair. Some wheelchair users have good upper body strength to perform such a task. As the new accessible changing facility is designed to accommodate both users I wonder how a safe transfer is performed without the standard grab rail. If this toilet is functional for self-transferring wheelchair users then we would have to question our building code. We are fully aware that our building code NZ4121 is outdated and needs revising.

The height-adjustable hand basin

So excited to see a height-adjustable hand basin with grab handles. Finlay first enjoyed one of these hand basins in a Hamilton Changing Place. There it had a clever touch-sensitive tap lever that he found easy to use. It was the highlight of his visit.

The long mirror here is accessible for all users, we often see mirrors set too high for those seated. The cardboard moveable bin is awkwardly placed for people seated trying to access the paper towels. I also wonder if we could get Finlay close enough to use the hand drier. All this can be put into practice on our next visit!

Considerations

Don’t forget your sling! This pool to date does not provide a range of slings with their hoist. They also do not advertise to date this incredible addition on their website for Albany Stadium Pool. Once word gets out in Auckland I am sure people will be visiting from all over.

Constructive feedback from Finlay’s visit

We rocked up to our first Auckland swimming pool visit in close to a decade. Before that, I was still able to use the floor to change Finlay or some wooden bench. Unfortunately, like many family carers, I ended up with injuries over time. It is also highly undignified for our loved ones resorting to floors.

On the day we visited, we thought we were being clever in avoiding the busy weekend. We had been advised to visit during the week as this is a hugely popular pool at the weekends. What we didn’t realise is that we were not the only ones having a ‘teacher-only’ day. It seemed like everyone had the same idea of visiting the pool. We had to wait patiently in a queue waiting for people to leave so we could enter. Thankfully the wait wasn’t long, and both myself and my helper for the day were allowed in for free as caregivers. We signed a register for the card to access the changing room. As usual, these rooms need to be locked due to the health and safety of the equipment inside.

The accessible route takes you right towards the double doors with ‘No Entry’ on them. This can be initially confusing but the reception staff are there to point you right. Once through turn left and everything is well signposted. The card is used to activate the first double doors taking you into a space outside the changing room.

On arrival, we had to wait for a bit as the room was already occupied. After, 10-minutes a self-propelling wheelchair user came out with his wife. I asked him how he found it, and he replied favourably saying he’d waited 6 years for one to be retrofitted and was over the moon it was finally here.

Once we got inside, our first challenge was getting the door to slide shut, we had to play around with it for a bit before we realised there was a delay. We then had to consider where we needed to position everything to transfer from the chairs to the changing table. The space was restricted especially when you had to factor in two female caregivers trying to get changed in the same open space as Finlay. This is where we noted that the privacy curtain only served the toilet itself, and not the changing space as a whole.

We then went to use the hoist but found it wasn’t working. I tried pushing the red button in case the red hanging cord had been pulled. It was hard to reach so I used the head of the controller to push it back in. Unfortunately this didn’t work straight away and I worried that the battery needed charging. Then I remembered that this particular ceiling track hoist has a continual charge and then I saw the battery light was green. I tried pulling the cord and pressing the button once again … this time it worked!

Where do we put all our items to have everything at easy reach and kept dry? There were no hooks or shelves anywhere close at hand.

The shower hose reached over Finlay without having to drag it over his body, as we were able to tuck it underneath the changing table. Our one issue was the need to leave Finlay unattended on the change table to walk over to pick the shower head up and put it back again. This positioning means there must be two people available to assist anyone using the change table. It is a health and safety risk to walk away and leave anyone unattended on a change table.

We used the courtesy pool chair (the only one with a lap belt) to get Finlay down the ramp. To keep him safe we wheeled him down the ramp backward under the guidance of the lifeguard. The lifeguard also pointed out that they have two float belts that we could have used. I put one around Finlay’s chest whilst in the pool.

The pool temperature is around 30 degrees, it felt cooler to me, but it’s been a while since I’ve jumped into a pool. We were eyeing up the well-occupied spa pool at 38 degrees next door but could see no accessibility for us to get into it.

Exiting the pools

All in all, we were delighted to have finally been able to find access to a local pool. People with disability need to be able to dry off and change when visiting a swimming pool. Finlay, for example, has Cerebral Palsy which means he is unable to control his body temperature easily. It is important to maintain that temperature to minimise risks to his health.

Conclusion

We feel that our public pools need to include a caregiver disability changing facility in addition to a self-transferring wheelchair-user setup. This is because both types of rooms function very differently, and if using the principles of Universal Design here there is a risk of compromising user safety.

However, Albany Stadium Pools has given access back to its disability community. It has also allowed people who rely on caregiver assistance a place to change and shower. Our friends, the Clay family, travelled from Ōrākei, central city to Albany on Auckland’s North Shore to take a swim. This is what little Indie had to say afterward:-

“I didn’t think this was going to be fun but it was the best day ever”

Indie Clay