When a Trans Man Has Breast Tissue at the Pool: What Aquatic Staff Should Know Aquatic facilities are one of the few public spaces where people are routinely asked to expose much more of their bodies than they would almost anywhere else. That makes swimwear, changing spaces, gender, privacy, and body differences part of everyday aquatic operations whether staff have been trained for those conversations or not. Imagine a man arrives at your pool wearing swim trunks and no shir

Aquatic staff encounter medical conditions and medical devices more often than they may realize. A swimmer may have a small sensor attached to their arm, an insulin pump under their clothing, a feeding tube hidden beneath a swimsuit, a medical alert bracelet on their wrist, an inhaler in their bag, or emergency medication that needs to remain close to the pool. Another swimmer may tell an instructor that they have epilepsy or explain that the phone sitting beside the pool is

Most aquatic facilities did not write their rules with exclusion in mind. That's actually the problem. Rules written decades ago, copied from another facility's handbook, or inherited from a previous director often reflect the assumptions of a very specific kind of swimmer - and quietly make everyone else feel like they don't belong. This isn't about blame. It's about auditing what we've inherited and asking whether it's still serving the communities we're supposed to welcome

Aquatic facilities are places where bodies are unusually visible. People are wearing swimsuits, climbing ladders, fitting into life jackets, sitting on pool lifts, riding slides, moving through narrow entrances, using deck furniture, and participating in activities where equipment was designed around specific dimensions and weight capacities. For people in larger bodies, that can create barriers long before they ever get into the water. A life jacket may not fit. A waterslide

Almost every pool has a version of this phrase somewhere in the code of conduct, on a sign, in a staff training manual: we're a family-friendly facility. It sounds neutral. Welcoming, even. Who could object to being friendly to families? The problem is that "family friendly" isn't actually a rule. It's a placeholder for a set of unstated assumptions, and those assumptions do real work: deciding whose body is acceptable to see, whose relationship is acceptable to witness, and

Last time, the target was patrons: "family friendly" as a vague standard that lets bias operate without ever stating itself. The staff-facing version of the same move is "professional." Ask a facility what their uniform policy is actually protecting, and you'll rarely get a functional answer sun protection, chlorine durability, quick identification on deck. You'll get "we want our staff to look professional." That phrase sounds like a standard. It isn't one. It's a stand-in f

Most changing room policies were written with one scenario in mind: a person, alone, changing their own clothes. Everything about the room — the age cutoffs, the "family" label, the size of the stalls, the assumption of who belongs where — gets built around that single scenario. Then real people show up, and almost none of them are that simple case. A child too big for the family stall but not ready to be alone in a locker room. A caregiver who needs to help an adult they sup

Drowning prevention campaigns are aggressive on purpose, and they should be. Drowning is fast, silent, and preventable, and the messaging built around it — "every child should learn to swim," "everyone can learn to swim," "swim 25 yards by age 6" — exists because urgency saves lives. But urgency built around a single, unstated body has a cost too. "Every child should be able to swim 25 yards by age X" isn't a neutral safety benchmark. It's a benchmark built around a typically

A parent settles into a chair on the pool deck and begins nursing their baby. Another patron complains to a lifeguard. The lifeguard, who has never received any guidance on this, asks the parent to move to a more private area. The parent knows their rights. The interaction escalates. A complaint is filed. This scenario happens at aquatic facilities across the country, consistently, and almost always because staff were never given the information they needed to handle it corre

Aquatic environments are sensory-rich spaces by nature. Whistles, splashing, music, transitions between activities, and high expectations for safety all happen simultaneously on deck. For many swimmers and staff members this environment is energizing, but for others it can quickly become overwhelming. Neurodivergence already exists within aquatic facilities — across swim lessons, staffing teams, guest service interactions, and emergency response situations. When behavior is m

Lifeguards are trained to respond to emergencies. They practice rescues, run drills, and learn protocols. What most of them are not trained for is the swimmer who doesn't respond the way the protocol assumes they will. A patron pacing the deck and covering their ears after a whistle blast. A child curled on the pool deck who is not responding verbally but is breathing normally. A teen walking fast toward the exit during an emergency announcement. These situations happen. And

The conversation about neurodivergence in aquatics almost always centers on swimmers. How do we support a neurodivergent child in swim lessons? How do we respond when a patron's behavior doesn't match our expectations? These are important questions. But there is a parallel conversation that most aquatic facilities have not started yet: how do we support the neurodivergent staff already on our teams? Neurodivergence does not disappear when someone puts on a uniform. Lifeguards

Most aquatic facilities have thought about wheelchair ramps and pool lifts. Fewer have thought about the swimmer who looks completely fine walking in but cannot pull themselves out of the pool. Or the swimmer managing an ostomy bag who has never seen a facility policy that addresses their situation and quietly wonders if they are welcome. Visible disabilities prompted most of our access infrastructure. Invisible disabilities are where the gaps still live — and where a little

Most aquatic facilities were not designed with neurodivergent swimmers in mind. The noise, the crowds, the unpredictability, the sensory overload of a busy pool deck — these are real barriers that keep neurodivergent swimmers and their families from accessing aquatic spaces. And most staff have never been given the tools to recognize what's happening or respond in a way that actually helps. Here is what your team needs to know. What Neurodivergence Actually Means in Your Faci

Language access at aquatic facilities is not a customer service issue. It is a safety issue. When a parent cannot read the depth markers, when a swimmer cannot understand the lifeguard's instruction, when a family cannot follow the emergency evacuation procedure because it was posted only in English — the consequences are not inconvenience. They are injury and death. Aquatic facilities serve the full diversity of their communities. Most of them communicate as though their com

Cultural and Religious Calendar Awareness for Aquatic Facilities Most aquatic facility directors plan their programming calendar the same way every year. Summer kickoff in late May. Big family event over Fourth of July weekend. Back-to-school special in August. Holiday break programming in December. That calendar was built around a specific set of cultural assumptions — and it quietly signals to a significant portion of your community that the facility was not designed with t

Aquatic facilities spend real energy on making programming affordable, inclusive, and welcoming. Reduced admission fees, scholarship programs, free swim nights — all of it matters. But there is a barrier that sits upstream of all of it that most facilities have never addressed: getting there in the first place. If a family cannot physically get to your pool, your pricing structure is irrelevant. Your inclusive programming is irrelevant. Your welcoming staff are irrelevant. Tr

If your lifeguards have ever hesitated when a swimmer walked in wearing a burkini, a hijab, or a full-coverage rash guard — that hesitation is a training gap, not a personal failing. Most aquatic staff have never been given clear guidance on this. They're left to make a judgment call in real time, in front of a patron, with a line forming behind them. That's not a fair position to put anyone in. Here's what your team needs to know. Modest Swimwear Is Not New, and It's Not Rar

Few topics create more confusion at the front desk or admissions entrance than service animals. A family arrives with a dog. A staff member panics. Nobody is quite sure what the rules are, what they're allowed to ask, or what happens if the animal enters the water. This post exists because that confusion is avoidable and because getting this wrong exposes your facility to ADA complaints, discrimination claims, and the kind of incident that ends up in a Facebook group for all

On today’s episode of Open Space Radio, I’m thrilled to be joined by one of this year’s recipients of the NRPA Young Professional...