The Intersection of Travel and Disability
In September, Maayan Ziv got off a flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv to find her wheelchair completely destroyed. Here, she explains why—and how—we need to improve travel for people with disabilities. Read her story.
The number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal court in 2020 dipped slightly under 11,000, but the plaintiffs’ bar came roaring back in 2021. There were at least 11,452 federal filings last year – an all-time record since the ADA Title III website started keeping track in 2013. That year, there were only 2,722 suits, which suggests a 320% increase in ADA lawsuits over eight years.
Disabled people will continue to exercise their rights to equal access under the ADA, and businesses should take note of their responsibilities to ensure accessibility and inclusion for all.
To read more about this topic, see the full article at ADATitleIII.com.
Do you know a travel supplier (hotel, restaurant or attraction) that has received an ADA Demand Letter for their company website? Do they know what to do or how to respond? Join Fisher Phillips partner, Tyler Woods, a labor and employment specialist, who will explain the law, covering the current landscape of ADA website accessibility claims, and offering tips on how to avoid claims. He’ll share what to do if you get sued at this FREE webinar on September 30th. This webinar has been approved for HRCI/SHRM credit.
When: September 30, 2021 at 10:00-10:45 am PDT.
Where: https://www.fisherphillips.com/news-insights/ada-website-accessibility-lawsuits.html
DanVy Vu was out on the floor of her restaurant one chilly evening in December 2019 when a staff member called her to the hostess station to assist an angry customer — a man in a wheelchair who, along with his wife, had been stuck outside. The couple said that they had tried the accessible entrance through a courtyard but found the gate locked, which had left the man shivering out in the cold while his wife circled back to a non-accessible entrance at the front of the restaurant for help opening the gate.
The customer, Albert Dytch, filed a lawsuit following the incident. Dytch is a 71-year-old man with muscular dystrophy who has filed more than 180 ADA lawsuits in California. With the support of a prolific lawyer named Tanya Moore, Dytch has sued restaurants, movie theaters, shops, educational institutions and even hotels.
Our take: These serial lawsuits have created fear among hoteliers in Florida, California and New York, where ambulance-chasing lawyers claim that, since the ADA laws have little or no enforcement capabilities, litigation is really the default method of enforcement. Although some courts have proposed a 30-45 day cooling-off period that allows businesses to make corrections, the disability community opposes this as, they contend, the businesses have had 30 years to conform. Who’s right?
To read the full story, see the New York Times article.
Earlier this year, a federal court upheld a jury verdict that awarded a wheelchair user $500,000 because a door at his employer’s office building was too difficult to open.
The Americans with Disabilities Act sets clear regulations on the maximum force that can be required to open interior doors in businesses and other places of public accommodation. 5 pounds of force is the greatest amount permissible, and “heavy” doors that require disabled people to exert greater effort violate the ADA regulations.
StepNpull, the company behind the ingenious hands-free door opener that relies on foot power, recently published a guide to the ADA Design Standards for doors, and described how doors can be easily adjusted to make them easier to open. Turns out, it’s actually very simple: A few turns of an Allen wrench or screwdriver could prevent an expensive lawsuit.
To read StepNpull’s guide to adjusting doors for ADA compliance, visit the StepNpull website.
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