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Is it bad to request a hotel’s handicap accessible room even though you are not handicapped? No, it is not bad to request a handicap room and in fact, such rooms are used more by those who are not handicapped than those who are handicapped. Read on…According to the American Community Survey (ACS), there are six types of disability:HearingVisionCognitiveAmbulatorySelf-CareIndependent LivingOf these six, Ambulatory difficulty is the disability that would most likely be in need of a handicapped room. Those who use a wheelchair (please do not say “confined to” or “Bound to” a wheelchair as both are considered politically incorrect[1] and insulting)[2] fall under the category of Ambulatory.According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the HHS (U.S. Department of health and Human Services), and National Center for Health Statistics, a joint 2016 National Health Interview Survey[3] concluded that roughly 17.1 million or 7% of Americans have difficulty walking and are in need of assistance (ie: wheelchair, walker, cane, crutches.) In the 2017 Disability Statistics and Demographics report[4] by the Annual Disability Statistics Compendium, their Disability Statistics and Demographics survey concludes the percentage comes to roughly the same at 6.6% of the population.Statistically, Accessible Rooms Will Remain EmptyA hotel has a limited number of Handicapped rooms so exactly how many does “limited number” mean? According to the ADA (American with Disabilities Act), it varies. Section 224 of the ADA throws light upon the mystery by defining the hotel design requirements:By focusing in on the first two columns, we see that a 100 room hotel needs 4 or 4% of the inventory to be accessible. But look what happens when the hotel has more rooms: A 201 room hotel must have SEVEN accessible rooms. At 401 rooms, it jumps up NINE handicapped accessible rooms.Let’s be realistic. Unless there is a convention or in-house conference for people in wheelchairs, the odds of a hotel actually needing seven or nine or even three or four of these rooms, are very, very remote. When only 7% of the U.S. population has an ambulatory issue, how many of that 7% are all traveling on the same day? Is it 7%…6%…5%? Who can say, right? But by reviewing the data, I think it is safe to conclude that most handicapped accessible rooms sit empty each night, unless the hotel is sold out.People who use wheelchairs are well aware of their needs. Unless they started using a wheelchair just recently, they know to request an accessible room when making the reservation and then a day or two before arriving, following up with the hotel by speaking to a manager or in-house reservations agent to confirm the specific room was blocked (held.) Very few will simply show up at checkin and request such a room.In the remote chance that a hotel runs out of handicapped accessible rooms because non-handicapped guests are occupying the rooms, a Front Office Manager needs to be creative by calling each of the those guests and finding one that would not mind taking a (double) upgraded to a (large) suite to free up the room. Let’s think about this for a second. If you requested a handicapped room but was not actually handicapped and you received a call from the hotel manager explaining there was a real need for the room for a guest in a wheelchair, would you move? I mean, who morally would deny such a request (yes, I know…a few people would say, ‘no way.”)You must also recognize the first three stats in the chart above. A hotel with between 1 and 50 rooms has only 1–2 accessible rooms. That’s not very many so you should refrain from asking.So if we consider the odds and what the data tells us, it is perfectly ok to call and make the request. If you want such a room, you need to call the hotel and ask for the room. If you are told, “rooms are assigned upon checkin” and they refuse to block a room, then you can escalate the request to a supervisor or manager but then ask yourself is it really worth the trouble? In this case, I would just ask the front desk agent upon checkin. These rooms are always the last ones that desk agents assign guests. Not because they should be assigned last, but because no room gets more complaints and requests for room moves than a handicapped room. A lot of people do not like the open roll-in shower or grab bars surrounding the bathtub or raised toilet and other modifications. However, if you are a Rooms Manager reading this, assign your last accessible room for one of the last arrivals. You never know who might show up with a request.My last piece of advice is NEVER, EVER request an accessible room when you book on-line. THAT, is being very inconsiderate. Booking it on-line removes it from the inventory and you just might be taking away the room from a guest who legitimately needs it.The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991 and the updated 2010 version do not mandate that an accessible room MUST be available for someone who is in need of it. When I was managing the Front Office however, I always tried to keep the last one in my “back pocket” just in case it was needed. But as a manager, I have removed doors, had shower chairs available, and have done everything I could to make my guest’s experience while visiting the property, an effortless and seamless experience.Footnotes[1] Proper Terminology: Don’t Use “Confined to” or “Wheelchair Bound”[2] Please Stop Saying "Wheelchair Bound" • Free Wheelin'[3] https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/NHIS/SHS/2016_SHS_Table_A-10.pdf[4] https://disabilitycompendium.org/sites/default/files/user-uploads/2017_AnnualReport_2017_FINAL.pdf

Yes, but just because one (SSDI or VA) says you are 100% permanent and total disabled, the other has their own criteria and does not mean you will automatically be approved for the other. As an example, the VA deems you are 100% permanent and total disabled due to your service in one of our military services. Now that you have your VA disability, you go to Social Security and file a claim for SSDI and use your VA medical records as proof of your disability. Social Security will set up appointments with their contracted doctors to include mental health if that is part of your claim. Unfortunately, too often, you will be turned down, if and when that happens, automatically take your denial paperwork to Social Security and request a relook, this bumps your claim up a level to be reviewed, if you get another denial, my advice is to take your paperwork and find a Social Security lawyer. If they take your case, they believe they will win it as they only get paid if they win. upon approval you would be owed back pay, a certain percentage by law, is where the lawyer gets their fees paid. My wife went through this in 2006, she is not a vet but the Social Security side is the same for most anyone.

A while back, a private company hired me to oversee the tech in their office as well as act as an office assistant. One of my tasks was to oversee the company’s cell phone usage.We had virtually unlimited minutes and unlimited texts, but mobile data and hot spot were limited. I’d log into the admin panel a couple times per week and check data usage. Where needed, I’d increase the data to avoid overage charges. For about 3 months straight I found myself requests additional data, so on the fourth month, I not only asked for additional data for the month, but also increased the overall amount of data on the plan for each month. Judging by the trend, we were likely to make use of it, so the purchase made sense.One day, the owner approached me. While reviewing the credit card statement, he noticed an extreme increase on the cell phone bill and asked me to look into it and let him know what’s going on. Thankfully I was quite organized at the time and had a series of breakdowns based on each telephone number for each month. I began opening excel documents and examining the trends after each month. Everything was fairly consistent, except there were two phones who began drastically using more and more data. It was astounding. I began to wonder how I could miss something so obvious.I then pulled up previous bills and noticed the two phones had lots of various charges as well. This struck me as odd because the only person who was authorized to make a purchase was myself, as I was doing the vast majority of cell phone-related purchases.I pulled out my cell phone and went through my list of contacts to try to discover who the two users were.**BOSS and **BOSS - famI stopped cold. The owner and either his wife or daughter were the root of the cause. It was at this time I remember, the owner of the company and the Accountant were the only other individuals who were authorized to make purchases. Though they would typically tell or ask me prior because they knew I kept a lot of spare equipment and accessories.I spent the next few minutes planning my words out carefully. I knew I had to inform the owner of my findings, but didn’t want to make him look like an idiot. I planned out exactly what I was going to say, then walked into his office with supporting documents in hand.As I walked into his office, I noticed the new cell phone on his desk and decided to use that as the conversation starter. I asked him about the phone. He said his daughter got it for him as a gift. I said “that’s nice of her”, then chuckled before saying “you’re gonna laugh in a second.”The owner looked at me in expectation. I quickly rifled through my papers while reminding him that kids will be kids and often do things with the best in mind. As I finished speaking, I located the piece of paper I wanted and placed it on his desk. “Your daughter used the business account to purchase your new cell phone.” He laughed before saying that made sense.I continued, “Now that only accounts for a small percentage of the increase to our monthly bill”. I then asked for his cell phone. He obliged and handed it over. I went through the settings while saying “Remember that weekend where your home internet was acting weird and you asked how to connect your phone to your laptop to get internet?”He nodded.I then showed him on his phone that his Hot Spot was still in use. He then freaked out asking if random people were using his data while he was out and about. I reassured him that without his unique password, that wasn’t possible. Rather, his laptop and tablet were using his phone’s data.He smiled and laughed, then I showed him how to disable it when not needed.I then went on to say that he needed to call his daughter and instruct her as well because she’s used nearly 70GB of data.Thankfully the owner fully understood that this was a mistake on his and his daughter’s part. But I was a bit wary that he may lash out on me in some fashion. Looking back at the entire situation, that’s never been his character. I went on to explain to him that this was missed because I do not monitor his family’s usage as per our original agreement.In the end, the owner and his family became more proficient with their devices, but not much else changed in terms of them. I did contact our service representative and requested notifications whenever a charge was made on the account. Now I could better monitor the account in a more expedited fashion, rather than once per month and usually days if not weeks after the accounted reviewed the bill.