To the Editor:

I called up the YMCA this afternoon and heard its welcome message. The Y is for healthy living (I ask how, if those who need it cannot access the exercise room), social justice (really, the Y by not making the facility accessible is discriminating) and everyone is welcome (how?).

I ask you how the Y can say or even think that when they exclude a segment of the community, the handicapped, from two thirds of its facilities.

Someone on the ADA helpline told me that, while older buildings were exempt from the original ADA regulations, Title 3 regulations are that 20 percent of a renovation budget of older buildings should be used to make the facilities more accessible. The Y is using semantics when it says it is “refreshing” its facilities rather than renovating them. When they redid the women’s locker room they changed where the entrance was, to make checking in to the facility easier for the staff, and replaced functioning (although no longer pretty) lockers but did nothing to make the area more accessible.

When I spoke to the CEO, Kate Bech, about making the facility more accessible it was clear from her comments that accessibility was not a priority, and she indicated that there was not money for making all three floors of the facility accessible. So I go back to my question, how can the Y be a community organization when it discriminates against the handicapped.

Nancy Hall

Walnut Lane