Noquochoke Station U.S. Post Office in Westport
529 Old County Road
Westport MA 02790
Phone: 508-636-4268
http://www.usps.com/
After my workout at
Healthtrax Fitness Center my friends and I traveled to the Noquochoke Station U.S. Post Office in Westport. We were very disappointed to find this U.S. Post Office is NOT wheelchair accessible.
We were especially interested in reviewing other Westport Post Offices due to a thoughtful comment posted by Westport Selectman
Steven J. Ouellette on our review of the
Westport – North End U.S. Post Office.
Westport Selectman Steven Ouellette informed us that he is ‘very interested in making the Westport post offices more accessible to all’. A committee will address accessibility of the post offices at a Westport Town Meeting the first week of May.
Noquochoke Station U.S. Post Office is a full service U. S. Post Office. Lobby hours are Monday thru Friday from 8:30am-5:15PM; Saturday from 9am-12pm. The customer service window is open daily Monday thru Friday from 8:30am-12:00pm & from 3:00pm-5:00pm; Saturday from 9am-12pm. The customer service window closes from 12pm-3pm, due to the postal worker needing to cover other postal workers lunch break.
There is no handicap parking spaces located in the parking lot of this post office. The entry is not wheelchair accessible for there is are two steps leading to the entry door and the threshold is not accessible for it is another small step.
My friend Ric, ventured inside to see if the interior is wheelchair accessible. He reports that the customer service counter, where you complete your postal transactions is way too high for a person in a wheelchair to reach.
The document service counter, where you fill out your postal slips is too high for a person in a wheelchair as well.
I give the Noquochoke Station U.S. Post Office in Westport ZERO STARS for wheelchair accessibility. In order to earn all Five Stars, they would need to: place handicap parking spaces in the parking lot; place a wheelchair accessible ramp leading to the entry door; install automatic entry doors so a person in a wheelchair can enter independently; lower a section of the customer service counter to a wheelchair accessible height; and lower a section of the document service counter to a wheelchair accessible height. If all these modifications were made, this U.S. Post Office would provide equal access to all.
I give Westport Selectman Steven Ouellette FIVE STARS for his sensitivity to the needs of the physically disabled citizens of Westport and for trying to help make the world more accessible to all!!
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
They should be ashamed, this is such as easy one to solve, side ramp coming in from the left or right plus alternative stepped approach (could be sorted on a Sunday Morning and back open for Monday)
Drop down counter fitted to the exsisting counter with built in hearing induction loop, then make changes to accommodate wheelchair users, those of a small stature when upgrading.
At least try for god’s sake!
May 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I need your help! Please get any Westporter to attend and Vote YES on article 38 & 39 supporting a Commision on Disablility in Westport.
See the attached link.
Thank you,
Steve
May 20th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Town Meeting starts next Wed. May 26 @ 7 PM. Westport has open Town Meeting, meaning any registered voter may attend/vote.
Others can attend but need to sit in designated area.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:36 am
Hi Selectman Ouellette,
I’ve always found it very disheartening that we have Americans with Disabilities Act -ADA in place, yet the ADA does not allow enforcement of ADA by the town/city building inspectors or Disability Commissions.
The best SOLUTION would be for ALL towns/cities to pass an Ordinance Amendment , similar to the Amendment the City of Cambridge passed.. ‘The Ordinance Amendment authorizes the Cambridge Human Rights Commission to investigate an allegation that a place of public accommodation has failed to take action to remove a readily achievable structural barrier to access.’
The City of Cambridge then sent this letter to all businesses http://www.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/ordinance.pdf
You may want to contact the Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities and Cambridge Human Rights Commission for their advice . Their contact information can be found at http://www.cambridgema.gov/DHSP2/disabilities.cfm and http://www.ci.cambridge.ma.us/~HRC/index.html.
I applaud you for respecting the rights of the disabled citizens of Westport!
Best Wishes
May 21st, 2009 at 10:41 am
The Massachusetts building code (780 CMR & 521 CMR) & The ADA are two different laws that have significant differences. The ADA is Civil Rights legislation and 780 CMR & 521 CMR are building code. They do, in many situations accomplish the same outcome, provide access to something.
Building officials cannot enforce the ADA because of the differences between the laws. Building Officials are obligated by statute to look at structural safety of new & renovated facilities. That purpose is not easily applied to Civil Rights laws and it is a conflict of interest for a building official to be the ADA Coordinator for the City/Town they represent.
Yes, the ADA does address structural features of various buildings and such but it also applies to programatic access & policies that are in place, to name a few of the Civil Rights applications of the ADA.
Building Oficials truly have thier hands full with what they are required to do now. That is one of the reasons why there are so many non Inclusive Accessible buildings in Massachusetts. I say one of the reason, but in no way am I letting building officials off the hook. I have seen many city/town employees and I know what gets done and what doesn’t. Being on the clock on the taxpayers dime has its obligations and sometimes those obligations get lost.
The DOJ, HUD, US Attorney’ and other agencies enforce the ADA after a complaint has been filed. If there were local enforcement agencies that had the authority to enforce the ADA it likely wouldn’t take so long for an ADA complaint to be processed and adjudicated. The enforcement of the ADA, in my opinion would be very very costly, that is why it is a volunteer compliance law. During the research and studies back in the late 80′s about Inclusive Access, I believe it became so very apparent to the current administration how vast and extensive the problem was concerning the lack of appropriate & safe access for Individuals with Disabilities. That is why, in my opinion, there are not officials out in the communities on a daily basis enforcing the ADA. It would consume 1000s & 1000s of hours and have a price tag that would exceed many small town budgets. So they depend on Individuals like you & me to find the Architectural & Programatic barriers and file the complaints, all done as volunteers!
The City of Cambridge, from the little experience I have had with it, and the human rights ordinances has a great starting point that appears to be narrow in scope, but fits thier city so to speak. I can think of a few complexities to requireing cities/towns to all have such an ordinance and a Human Rights Commission along with an ADA Commission to back it up.
One example would be, it is very difficult for cities/towns to keep an active ADA Commission, if it were a paid position along with the other supporting positions then that would be a different story. The City of Westfield pay thier ADA members, not a whole lot but it is more than any other city/town that I know of.
May 21st, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I find this all very CONFUSING as to if and who enforces the ADA.
ADA is a Civil Rights LAW. ADA needs to be ENFORCED.
No public business is going to voluntarily offer to make their place accessible unless there is someone who can enforce it and a fine a penalty if not compliant with ADA.
I recommend all public places of business who are not ADA compliant be FINED by the City or Town’s Disability Commission. The many FINES would generate $$$$$$$ to help the City or Town’s Disability Commission pay for an ADA inspector!!
Breaking any Law has a penalty..like speeding…you know if you get caught there will be a fine to pay and if you get caught speeding too often…your penalty is you lose your driver’s licence.
Why not the same of public places of businesses who are not compliant with ADA?????