Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990/Title III

Title III. Public Accommodations:

This title of the ADA has been made very visible by the large amount of complaints and law suits it has generated, and some of the much-publicized decisions that have resulted therefrom.
An example would be the court decision that Yankee Stadium must offer a fair number of accessible seats, affording an equal view of a baseball game as a regular seat, at a comparable price, and in an integrated setting. As a result of this decision, Yankee Stadium found that, based on the existing structure of the stadium, the most economical remedy would be to offer:

• acessible seats, to be constructed in more expensive areas of the stadium, at equal price to bleachers seats, and
• an accessible seating area, at least triple the size of the that required for diabled viewers, to allow them to sit with non-disabled friends and family, under the ruling that access to be disabled be in an integrated setting.
  

(to be added to)

Summary:

The ADA mandates that, by January 26, 1998, the public accommodations provisions of the act bar discrimnation based on disability, in the full amd equal enjoyment of goods, services, facilities, priviledges, advantages, or accommodations of any public business or service operated by private entities. Goods services, and accommodations must be offered in the most appropriate, intergrated setting.

It is discriminatory not to remove architextural and communications barriers in an existing facility if it is "readily achievable" - that us, able to be accomplished without much difficulty or expense. Factors taken into consideration include the nature and the coost of the structural modification, and the size, financial resources, and type of the business. If the barrier cannot be removed readily, the goods and services must be made available through alternative methods.

It is also discriminatory to fail to reasonably modify policies, practices, and proceedures that would allow individuals with disabilities equal access and opportunity to goods, services, and priviledges.

New facilities occupied after January 26, 1993 must be accessible, unless accessibility is impossible to achieve. Requirements apply to new altered facilities as well.

The Attorney General was ordered to issue implementing regulations, for the above law.

Private entities, except airlines, that are primarily in the business of transporting people are required to purchase or lease only accessible fixed-route vehicles, unless the vehicle seats less than eight. And, more.

The Secretary of Transportation was ordered to issue implementing regulations.

Definition of A Public Accomodation:

Based on the definition in the ADA itself, "places of public accommodation" can include:

hotels, motels, or inns (except one in which the proprietor lives and five or fewer rooms are rented); food and drink establishments; theaters, concert halls, stadiums and other places of exhibition and entertainment; auditoriums, convention centers, lecture halls; bakeries, groceries, clothing and hardware stores, shopping centers and other sales and rental establishments; such service establishments as laundromats. banks, barber and beauty shops, funeral parlors, gas stations, accountant and lawyer offices, hospitals and healthcare providers offices.

Also, transportation terminals and stations; museums, galleries, libraries, parks, zoos, amusement parks; nursery and elementary through post-graduate private schools, and other places of education; day-care and senior citizen centers; homeless shelters; food banks, adoption agencies, and social service centers; gymnasiums, health spas, bowling alleys, golf courses and other exercise and recreational places.

Exemptions:

• private clubs or establishments covered under the [Civil Rights Law of 1964]?
• religious organizations or entities controlled by religious organizations, inculding places of worshup
  

Limited Exemption:

Historic Landmarks - historic landmarks are given broader guidelines, based on the principles that if an modification required for accessibility would ruin the "basic nature" of the landmark, this modification may not be required.