Adapting techniques: how adaptive aquatics can make dollars and sense.(Bottom Line)(Fairfax County Park Authority serves mentally retarded persons)

Good access is good business. The Fairfax County, Va., Park Authority's adapted aquatics program serves some 800 adults and children with physical or mental disabilities annually. Classes range from learn-to-swim to multiple sclerosis water exercise to competitive swim training for Special Olympians.

All of them more than recover their approximately $1,000 annual cost. We even take in extra money that's used to fund scholarship programs for the less fortunate.

Our secret? We carefully schedule our adapted aquatics program in standard pools shared with high-school swim teams, lap swimmers, water exercisers, learn-to-swimmers and other class takers. That eliminates the need to amortize the cost of specially designed therapeutic pools.

Instead, relatively minor and affordable modifications provide accessibility. All eight of our RECenters have water wheelchairs available--stainless steel models that run approximately $1,600 apiece. Pools at four RECenters have zero-depth beach entries; the price tag for the most recent of these modifications, completed in 2002, was $170,000. At other pools, recessed steps were added to the deep-water wells and standard ladders were replaced with broad steps.

But the park authority's commitment to accessibility begins well before customers reach the pool. It starts with attitude adjustment. A decade ago, the agency instituted Project LIFE (Leisure Is For Everyone) training for all front-line staff, focusing on how to facilitate participation in the classes of their choice for people with disabilities, mainstreaming with or without a "leisure coach" when possible.

Also prior to pool assessments, parking lot spaces were redrawn to ensure that adequate handicapped parking was available in the right locations. Automatic door openers were installed, and the front desks at the RECenters were redesigned to lower the counters for easy reach by customers in wheelchairs. As locker rooms came up for cyclical upgrades, they were remodeled to provide sufficient space for wheelchairs to maneuver, and family changing rooms were made totally accessible.

The facility modifications for improved access are ongoing, as is volunteer recruitment. Volunteers are the heart of adapted aquatics. They work one on one with students under the guidance of trained instructors. Without them, the program would be beyond the financial reach of the park authority; last year, 239 volunteers gave 4,655 hours, a contribution valued at nearly $92,000, if the time were paid.