Push
Can you help with a small ethical problem?
As you may know, my colleague on The World at One, Nick Clarke (68), recently came back to work, having lost a leg to cancer. On my return to the studio last night I noticed that they've installed a push panel next to the studio door for people with disabilities. It automatically opens the (rather heavy) door with ease. There's a similar button on the other side for easy exit. Marvellous for Nick and any other people who might have the need of it.
My question is - is it OK for me to use it?
RSS feed
Email us
Listen to PM
I would say check with the grown-ups first Eddie. Tricky things doors.
My word. You're up early!
I suspect using the button is okay; you could justify it by carrying something heavy.
However, are you sure Mr Clarke is 68? I thought he was born in 1948 making hime 10 years younger than you suggest! If I am correct, then that is the unethical element of your statement!
SB1
Plus, isn't this technology?
You will most likely break it so on second thoughts...
SB3
The short answer is, just that - Are you short enough to press the button with ease? Experience has taught that suchbuttons are, like disabled-friendly cash machines, a pain in the back for the taller able bodied (so you see, I've given them a go!). But - Hey! - this could be a new workout for the less fit and we could all end up much more supple. Give it a go, Eddie! We'll all await your feedback with bated breath .....
That reminds me Eddie. I recently went to a big big record store in Piccadilly. You'll know the one.
I asked a young sales assistant. "Have you got anything by The Doors". She said, " Yes, we usually keep a sand bucket and a security guard"!
Hi again,
This is a request rather than a comment - It's getting a bit boring looking at the photos on the blog. Has Eddie got some nice photos to share with us from his hols? Or, if he's shy, perhaps we could see the crew in their autumn collection .....? What do other bloggers think?
Eddie,
Don't touch the button. Continue to wrestle with the door in your own manly way. It's a good workout, after all the sitting down in the studio. You know, treat it like a gym workout:
pull door open
fetching cup of coffee
push door opening
sitting down
to be repeated as much as you can.
SB7, but depends how many new bloggers come in today - hi there new bloggers.
Indeed, welcome PM Blog Newbies.
I thought occurs: if Eddie quad-blogged yesterday starting at 12:30 (ish), how many can we expect today?
Will I get any work done?
And most importantly, whose turn is it to buy the curly-wurlies?
I know exactly what you mean Eddie. There's a high street Bank near me that's got a similar device fitted. By the way I just use it.
I use it, because I like the aerodynamic noise the door makes, when I push the button. It's a sort of mechanical whirring sound, not too loud. Infact I thinks it's fitted with an inaudibly low "infrasonic" frequecy valve or something similar to that. Like you, I'm not technically minded, but I think it has one nevertheless. Almost certain.
The noise it makes is harmless, I just like its gentle metallic clunk. I think it might be the gear box that whirrrs. Also it's been minimised by a vibration isolation measure. Fitted to British standards mind you.
I wonder if the one at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has got that as well? I sometimes just push the button even though I'm not going into the Bank. It's the sound I like. However, I do think it could do with speeding up a bit.
Well, is it ethical to discriminate between those who may and those who may not push the button?
If it's like the button next to the (very heavy) door to the local bank, it's at just the right level to nudge it with your elbow, which might or might not be an accidental gesture.
This may (or may not) be good defence in case the door button police just happen to be watching.
Eddie: If this button sets in motion a smooth ballet of technology to open the door, then yes use it. Why not?
However, if pushing the button causes a broom-handle to prod a poor orphan child, clad in flat cap and knickerbockers, rousing him from his tuberculine doze to heave the door open for you, then I would say...
...still yes, actually.
"Accessibility" (in design terms) is about making things more accessible for all whether "able" bodied or not.
IF the door is easier to open now, then the more ethical question is why wasn't the button installed in the first place?
The door needs to be heavy, I'm sure, but I'm also sure people have been struggling with it for years.
Be grateful and press away (though then skipping through and pirroetting in the office might be a tad offensive....)
;¬)
Push the button, by all means. But stay off the grass!
I know of a similar device in my ‘work’ place, but in this case there is a notice that says not to push the door open manually, as it breaks the mechanism. So there is your answer.
Lord Mair does not 'do' grass!
Hoorar that eddie is bk, I don't much care for sequin, i just don't trust her.
There is no real ethical dilemma in using the facilaties provided for a disabled person to benefit urself-so long as that doesn't undermine the actual purpose of the facilaties by preventing the disabled using them effectively. So eddie-use the door button, but if mr clarke is going thru the door at the same time let him thru first.
re 15
So he's not a user but we are (mostly) encouraging him to become a pusher?
Tsk, tsk.
Okay he's up to 2 already. I'm taking bets that there wil be 5 blogs by 6pm
SB18
Dearest Eddie,
Morally, it would not be the done thing, however I do have two options to circumnavigate this problem.
1) Wait for some rather large and strong colleague to open those big, heavy doors and then sneak through "under their wing"
2) Feign a trip as you're heading towards said naughty doors and lurch in the direction of the device to open them. Nobody will suspect or know. However, you will and your conscience might not withstand such duplicity.
Maybe you should join a gym and pump up your muscles a tad?
I once used the button in the White City canteen -- no one from security descended on me. So I pushed it again just for fun.
But things might be different in News.
if you push the button do you have to count that in your carbone consumption calculator?
Eelctrically operated doors? Do you really not care at all about global warming?
You may only use it if it says "glad to be of service", each time you do.
Eddie --
You may use it ... on one condition.
It is vitally important that the door should make the sccchhh-wumppp sound from the original series of Star Trek. Get radiophonics (well, that's what they were called in the Sixties) to fit the door mechanism with suitable sound effects, and you can jazz on that button to your heart's delight.
As you already have a "studio door for people with disabilities", then surely the push panel is for their use only
Push the button with a clear conscience.
I don't pay my licence fee to pay for electricity to open doors for Maddy Prior or any other able-bodied broadcaster. When push comes to shove, shove it! (or pull it whichever is appropriate).
Jon (23),
Jazz on that button????
I dread to think.
PUNCTUATION, PUNCTUATION, PUNCTUATION!
"O.K." is the abbreviation (spelled correctly) of the Greek expression, Ola Kala (Ολα Καλά)
Perhaps you were attempting Choctaw "OKEY"?
Meanwhile, push away to your hearts content.
One for The Moral Maze I'd say...
Of course you can press the button - do you think twice about using handrails at steps? They are there for those who have difficulty climbing stairs unaided, but we are all free to use them.
Similarly you can use a disabled loo at the airport. It may be suitable for the disabled but that doesn't make it unsuitable for the able bodied. Just respect that if there is a disabled person around they should have priority over you in the use of such facilities.
My question is whether the installation of this door was planned before Nick Clarke (68) discovered that he had cancer or after his operation.
The Cathedral here in St. Albans has a loo for disabled people and others are always wondering if they should use it if there is a queue for the regular toilets.
David McNickle (66)
Apairofteeth (27),
I'm surprised they let you get away with that one.
Re: Comment No. 29
Shouldn't that be "heart's content"?
Martin Pedantic (32),
Comment 29 doesn't mention 'heart's content' or 'hearts content', so no.
(Nothing better than catching out a pedant.)
Martin P,
I just said 32 to see if you'd catch it.
Comment 30 raises another interesting question. If you are 8 1/2 months pregnant and can't actually get into a normal loo without standing on the loo seat to shut the door so decide to use the disabled facilities - do you have to give priority to any disabled person in the vicinity because having an 8lb (3.6 kg for those born after 1970) baby bouncing up and down on your bladder does present some urgency in the loo department?
Um Jo, re 36, it seems like you're channeling just a teenie tiny bit of repressed anger...
Re 30;
Hi Doug,
Whilst I respect the fact that you respect the visibly disabled, you are surely aware that some disabilities, such as chronic heart disease, etc etc., are not visible. To my mind, able-bodieds shouldn't use disabled facilities as we are then in danger of negating the point of having them.
Having spouted all that, I think you should use the button Eddie...
Gosh, that's a bit grown up and sensible of me (blush)...
At our College, we have a sign on one of the doors that reads "Automatic Door - Please Push Button to Open"... Is it me???
Hi Eddie,
It seems to me that if you cycle/walk to work, plant a tree or buy carbon allocation from someone who does, you can push the button.
You can also alleviate the moral issue if you are carrying a sandwich and coffee. When both hands are full, then the button is considered a door upgrade if you use your knee to push it. Then again, too many sandwiches will increase your methane output. You can't win Eddie! Just push the button.
I think there is a sense of achievement in wrestling open those heavy studio doors. I think you should keep on with the exercise & avoid the easy option. But for clarification, why not refer the question upwards to your line manager, or Resources or Diversity officer or Disability Access Issues Manager or whatever you have there. Better still, email them all, collate the replies & present it at the next office meeting in a 30 min presentation. Don't forget to give it a snappy title! Invite colleagues from other programmes to give their opinions too. That should keep everyone busy for a few weeks.
But Doug(30),
Why would anyone want to use a 'disabled loo'? I'm comfortable with all persons - able-bodied, pregnant, completely lashed, whatever - using an accessible toilet. In fact, if all toilets were made accessible to disabled people there'd be no ethical dilemma here at all. (I realise that this doesn't address the door-button issue, but I think there has been enough advice on that already). A loo that is disabled is, presumably, rendered so for a reason (cleaning or repairs perhaps?). It is clearly not the best place to "go".
And why the airport in particular?
David (32), Me get away with it? Surely your comment should be addressed to Jon (23)?
Gosh is that the time?
I must have fallen asleep reading the blog.
Time to push that door and head for the loo.
Speaking of doors and the signs thereon (see 38), I noticed one at - I think - M&S ('This is not just a door. It is a . . .' etc) that said 'THIS DOOR IS ALARMED'.
How did they KNOW? What had they done to cause it such consternation? And having done it, provoked the reaction and advertised the fact, what were they trying to achieve by advertising the fact (or at least part of it)?
I think we should be told.
Today's word, BTW, for inclusion in the programme is going to be 'foist'.
Now I have some important knitting to do.
sb 43
And I bet at least one of today's Ericblogs will be headed 'Bungs'.
A Perry Tiff (41),
But I think Jon meant what he said. We are the ones with the dirty minds.
Lady P (43&44) - I like it. Next time you're in M&S why not ask? And, yes, there's bound to be a bung in there somewhere.
David (45) I disagree. His use of the expression to mean "push a lot" was so unusual and incongruous I believe he was trying to provoke a reaction. I merely rose to the bait. Mainly because he made me think of Eric behaving in an undignified manner, but I really must not recall that image...
ref the idea (aperitif 41) that all loos should be suitable for disabled access - I agree. The best thing would be for all facilities to be accessible to everyone. This would have cost - but it would also have a benefit.
Ref Chris the Pickle (38) I take your point, mea culpa.
So glad to see so many jostling for Pedant of the Blog, maybe I should just shuffle off quietly....