A helping hand: thanks to the efforts of a local resident, disabled persons in Nassau County, N.

Donald Barbieri loves to swim with his 10-year-old daughter. In fact, swimming is the only physical activity that father and daughter can enjoy together.

That explains why the New Hyde Park, N.Y., resident with multiple sclerosis has become a staunch -- and successful -- activist for

Supported by a well-placed political pal, Barbieri persuaded Nassau County on New York's Long Island to spend more than $40,000 on new disabled access equipment for all seven of the county's pools. And he managed to do it at a time when the county was mired in an ongoing fiscal crisis.

Barbieri has no plans to slow down. He wants to ensure that other disabled Americans ate afforded the same opportunity and access throughout Long Island.

"It's been a good project... real gratifying," Barbieri says. "Now it's important to advertise and let people know all this equipment is available."

Passive accessibility

Barbieri began his crusade a couple of years ago by working with a variety of officials, including county legislator Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park), who happened to be a boyhood friend. Barbieri's motivation came when he realized that the county's version of accessibility differed from his own version.

"The problem is, most of the pools in the county say they're accessible," says Barbieri, who serves on the government relations committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Long Island Chapter. "But it's access to the decks, not into the pool. Sure, you have ladders, but it's hard for people with mobility problems to get up and down [ladders]."

Ron Beale, director of operations at the Nassau County Parks Department, acknowledges that most of his pools included steps recessed into the side of the pool or ladders mounted on the deck, both of which disabled patrons find difficult to use.

The result of Barbieri's efforts, according to Beale, include seven accessibility ramps on wheels, seven PVC wheelchairs and two free-hanging ladders for ambulatory patrons. The equipment is distributed among Nassau County's six outdoor, seasonal pools and its year-round aquatics center.

Beale is quick to note that the county's pools did have some disabled-friendly elements before the recent additions. For example, some of the seasonal pools had plastic or fiberglass wheelchair stations. And the county's aquatics jewel, the 82,000-square-foot, 1.6-million-gallon Swimming and Diving Center in Eisenhower Park, features a movable floor and a water-powered swim lift that guards wheel out on request. (See "Ensuring Goodwill after the Games" in the May/June 1998 issue).

Pool access via ramps and ladders gets a thumbs-up from many because of the equipment's "passive nature," which often translates into dignity for the disabled patron.

"A lot of times, you have somebody come in and say, 'No way will you swing me into a pool,"' says Perry Sawrey, managing director of Rehab Systems, LLC, a Fargo, N.D.-based supplier of Nassau County's new ramps, wheelchairs and ladders. "The ramps and ladders are more passive and practical."

The three-or four-step ladders are forward-entry, forward-exit ladders that feature 11-inch-deep steps that gradually lead a swimmer into the pool.

"It's almost like a staircase that hangs out into the water," says Beale.

No downside for staff

For Beale, the effects on his staff were practically nonexistent. To install the ramps, "all we had to do was drill a couple anchors that go through the mounting plate (on the deck)," Beale says. "The top landing for the ramps or ladders lock right into the mounting plate. One or two lifeguards can do it with relative ease."

At the outdoor pools, Beale keeps the ramps off to the side of the pool when they're not in use because the ramps can be considered entrapment hazards if they're always kept in the water.

"If a lifeguard's not watching, kids can get snagged underneath them," Beale says. "Anytime a patron needs [a ramp], one of the lifeguards just wheels it out and drops it in."

At the indoor Swimming and Diving Center, Beale leaves the ramp in the water because the area underneath the ramp is visible from a lifeguard stand. The wheelchairs are stored in the first aid office or guard's office, and brought out when requested.

Specialty training for the staff was another nonissue. "I just sat down with my lifeguard captains and lieutenants, mentioned what we were getting and told them what was expected," Beale says. "It's pretty idiot-proof."

Overall, Beale says he has experienced no downside to having the accessibility equipment. "Just because you have this equipment, it's not like you need anything extra," he says. "It goes hand-in-hand with the usual operations."

Beale says it's difficult for him to quantify how much the new equipment was used last summer. "Use by the physically challenged is definitely on an as-needed basis," he says. "If a handicapped patron is unhappy, I'd hear about it immediately. I get absolutely no complaints regarding any of the...equipment.

Although demand has been light, Beale welcomes the notion of adding more equipment in the future. But he knows the likelihood of getting another grant anytime soon is slim.

"I would think right now in Nassau County, there's no money available," he says. "We're in the midst of a really bad fiscal crunch, and also in the middle of some politics.

"But we're looking at the practicality of any and all equipment, and [putting] new technologies into all of our facilities."

What progressive thinking can do

Senior citizens and disabled residents of Nassau County on Long Island, N.Y., can thank progressive county officials and activist Donald Barbieri for the 40,000 worth of new disabled-friendly access equipment installed on all public pools in the county last summer.

They can also be thankful that a special Americans with Disabilities Act capital project fund was available. "We have a wonderful and progressive county that takes disabled rights very seriously," says Don Dreyer, director of the Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged. "I hope other municipalities find [our program] useful and kind of emulate Nassau County."

Soon after Congress adopted the ADA in 1990, county administrators implemented the special fund in anticipation of future needs. ADA funds are supported through the county's overall capital project funds raised via bonds, according to Dreyer.

Dreyer emphasizes that the ADA fund is not part of the county's general fund allocations. If not for this fact, the disability equipment could not have been purchased during the county's current state of fiscal affairs, which is poor, to say the least.

Dreyer stresses that the county has addressed accessibility issues comprehensively, rather than on a reactive or piecemeal basis. "The purchase of adaptive equipment is part of that approach," he says. "It's above and beyond what had already been done on varying degrees."

'In the pool, I'm good to go'

Like millions of others, Donald Barbieri, 41, enjoys going to his local pool. But unlike most visitors to aquatics centers, Barbieri has multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system.

In the past two to three years, his condition has deteriorated to the point that he can't run around and play his 10-year-old daughter.

"In the pool, though, I'm good to go," says Barbieri. "I can knock off 20 laps."

Barbieri tries to visit his local North Hempstead, N.Y., pool two to three times a week, where he swims 15 to 20 laps, depending on how he feels. "I swim more in the summer," he says. "My schedule makes it difficult to get out as much as I should."

Barbieri believes so strongly in the therapeutic benefits of water that he is campaigning to have all public pools on New York's Long Island acquire ramps, graduated stairs and water wheelchairs to ease pool accessibility for disabled persons and senior citizens. So far, his efforts have succeeded in installing accessibility equipment in the seven Nassau County Pools.

"Our goal is to sell this to all the communities on the Island, and have all their pools modified," says Barbieri, whose current targets include the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay. "It's an ongoing project, and we're interested in taking it to every village and town.

"What's important to me is that the word gets out that disabled people are invited to these facilities," he says. "[Many disabled persons] don't go to the pools because they don't think they're welcome. We're doing our best to change that, and tell them. 'Yes, this is a place you can have fun with your kids and exercise.'"

Barbieri often goes out of his way to help raise accessibility awareness.

"When I go to the pool, a lot of times I make them pull me in the lift, even if I don't need it, so people can see the electric lift," he says. "Hopefully, [other patrons will] tell their brothers, their grandmothers, whomever, that their pool has these types of disabled-friendly devices."

His experience with multiple sclerosis goes beyond his own affliction. "I have a sister who has MS, and unfortunately she can't get up and walk a half a step," Barbieri says. "However, you get her in a pool, and she can knock off five to 10 laps. "People's jaws drop when they see her....She goes to the pool twice a week.

"To many, [the pool] becomes the last venue where people can exercise."

Scott Kauffman is a free-lance writer based in Clermont, Fla.