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| Public and Government Disability Accommodations |
Government offices, businesses and facilities open to the public must make reasonable changes to avoid discrimination and provide full and equal access to disabled persons.
Public Accommodations
"Public accommodations" may not discriminate against an individual because of his disability. Public accommodations include:
- Restaurants
- Hotels
- Theaters
- Doctors' and lawyers' offices
- Pharmacies
- Stores
- Museums
- Libraries
- Parks
- Supermarkets
- Shopping malls
- Health clubs
- Cruise lines
- Private schools and day-care centers
Private clubs and religious organizations are exempt.
Changes to make facilities more accessible might include:
- Building special ramps or bus lifts
- Enlarging doorways and hallways to accommodate wheelchairs
- Redesigning seating and parking spaces
- Installing listening devices and Braille signs
- Having visual fire alarms
- Enlarging bathroom stalls and installing grab bars
- Making sure walks and entrances are level
Phone companies must offer telephone relay services to individuals who use telecommunications devices for the Deaf ("TDDs") or similar listening devices.
Businesses must remove physical barriers if this can be done without too much difficulty or expense.
If not, alternative methods of providing the services must be offered, if those methods are readily achievable. For example, a business may not be able to reconfigure stairs against which a blind person might accidentally hit his head, but the business would be expected to place a barrier such as a planter that the blind person would bump into and go around rather than hitting his head on the underside of the staircase.
All new construction in public accommodations, as well as in commercial structures such as office buildings, must be accessible.
A business must be careful, in making remodeling alterations to areas where the public congregates, to provide an accessible route to the altered area and the bathrooms, telephones and drinking fountains for that area. But the added accessibility costs can't be "disproportionate" to the overall cost of the alterations.
Businesses such as hotels that offer transportation generally must provide equivalent service for those with disabilities.
Common Carriers
Airplanes
The Air Carrier Access Act ("ACAA") of 1986 prohibits domestic air carriers from discriminating against disabled persons by refusing transportation or requiring advance notice of a disability.
An airline also can't require a disabled person to travel with an attendant unless their impairment is so severe that they couldn't assist in their own evacuation.
But an airline can require 48 hours notice and advance check-in for accommodations that require advance preparation, such as an electric wheelchair on an aircraft with fewer than 60 seats, or 10 or more disabled passengers traveling as a group.
Buses
New buses ordered since 1990 must be accessible.
Transit authorities must provide shared curb-to-curb services or other comparable transportation for those with disabilities who can't use fixed route bus services, unless it is prohibitively expensive.
New bus stations and alterations to existing stations also must be accessible to the extent that the added accessibility costs are not disproportionate to the overall cost of the alterations.
For privately-operated bus and van companies, freeway buses ordered since 1996 (1997 for small companies) must be accessible.
Other new vehicles, such as vans, must be accessible, unless the transportation company provides service to individuals with disabilities that is equivalent to that operated for the general public.
Trains
On trains, rail cars ordered since 1990 must be accessible and existing rail systems must have one accessible car per train. New rail stations and existing "key" stations must be accessible.
As with new bus stations, any remodeling must provide access for people with disabilities.
All Amtrak stations must be accessible by July 26, 2010.
This information was provided by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc. (DREDF).
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