Culture
Changes at the Athens City Pool make it more accessible than ever before
By: Emily Votaw
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Melissa Kitrick says her 8-year-old daughter, Fern Deviney, is “pretty much obsessed” with the Athens City Pool (601 East State Street).
If they drive past the complex on East State Street, Kitrick is sure to hear Fern pipe up: “She sees the pool and she’s like ‘yellow and blue water slide,’ every single time.”
Fern is autistic, and Kitrick says that “As fun as it is, as amazing as it is, the pool can be just a sensory overload nightmare.”
However, thanks in part to Kitrick’s advocacy, new policies and programming implemented this summer have made the Athens City Pool more accessible for people with disabilities than ever before.
Identifying challenges and finding solutions
Earlier this year at a meeting of the Athens City Commission on Disabilities, Kitrick pitched the idea of asking the City to designate a specific “sensory friendly swim” period at the pool. The Commission was supportive, quickly arranging to meet with Katherine Ann Jordan, who, as the City of Athens’ Director of Arts, Parks and Recreation, oversees the management of the Athens City Pool.
Key challenges the group identified during the meeting included excessive splashing and noise, the need for disability friendly flotation devices and life vests, and the hourly “adult swim” break.
The group settled on two kinds of solutions for these issues. The first was the creation of a Sensory Friendly Swim period which provides a free hour of swimming to those with disabilities and their families before the pool typically opens on Sundays.
Only the zero-entry pool and the splash pad will be open. The lap lanes, water slide, and kiddie pool will not be open. The zero-entry pool will remain open for the full hour, with no breaks for adult swim and no whistles. The program is sponsored by SOCIL (Southeast Ohio Center for Independent Living).
To implement the accessibility changes outside of the single hour on Sunday mornings, people with disabilities can request a special wristband when they check into the pool that allows lifeguards to identify that they are exempt from adult swim. This also applies to those who cannot wear the Coast Guard approved life vests or flotation devices usually mandated by the pool.
Prior to changes, some families “basically gave up going to the pool”
Last summer Kitrick tried to take Fern to the Athens City Pool.
All was well until the lifeguard on duty sounded their whistle — it was time for the once-an-hour, mandatory 15-minute adult swim break. Everyone out of the pool. Fern, like many people with autism, struggles with sudden transitions like these.
“My daughter did have a pretty spectacular meltdown,” Kitrick recalls. “She was deeply distressed, even if it didn’t make sense to anybody but her.”
The stares of other pool patrons didn’t help. Kitrick says they “made a bad moment even worse.”
Noriko Kantake knows exactly how Kitrick felt in that moment. In fact, she had an identical experience nearly 15 years ago. Her son, Kai Sugiyama, also has autism. Sugiyama is now in his mid-20s, but Kantake recalled taking him to the public pool when he was about Fern’s age.
“He had sensory overload and then couldn’t transition during the break time,” she says. “So I simply gave up taking my son to the pool, although he loved it.”
Kitrick says the wristband system and the Sensory Friendly Swim program have made it possible for families to avoid having to make the same kind of decision Kantake had to make all those years ago.
“It’s a huge step,” Kitrick says. “I’m really hoping that we continue to build this and show that there’s a real need and an interest in the city to have these kinds of programs.”
Sensory Friendly Swim at the Athens City Pool is a pilot program offering a free hour of swimming to anyone with sensory challenges or a disability. Families and friends of those individuals can join them, free of charge. The program is sponsored by SOCIL (Southeast Ohio Center for Independent Living).
Two Sensory Friendly Swim hours remain this season: this Sunday and Sunday, August 18.