this is a common experience For people with disabilities like her, she said many of them regularly experience problems when staying at hotels and using amenities.
But advocates say most people don’t have the time or resources to litigate these issues. Despite the decades-long existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a sweeping civil rights law, Despite mandates for accessibility in public spaces, barriers remain too pervasive.
“Every time we face discrimination, we have to calculate whether to respond or not,” said Raiskin, the disability advocate. In Denver. “You can’t deal with every problem, or you’ll always be dealing with it.”
Therefore, some people with disabilities have taken on the job of “tester.” They investigate accessibility issues and may even file lawsuits to prevent others from encountering the same barriers.The role of the tester is central The case is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
The lawsuit concerns tester Deborah Laufer, who claims a small hotel in Maine discriminated against her by failing to include required accessibility information on its website. The hotel’s lawyer has argued that she has no basis to sue because she never intended for Ms. Laufer to stay there.
Business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce argue that ADA lawsuits burden small businesses and the court system.
Although the Supreme Court could dismiss the case on complex legal grounds, the case will still challenge how the civil rights of people with disabilities are enforced and whether people with disabilities have access to accessible accommodations when traveling. sparked a discussion about the challenges still faced in finding .
When it’s difficult to book a hotel
Reiskin, who also worked as a tester, remembers staying at only a few hotels that were accessible by airport shuttles.
Although she was unable to personally sue each of these hotels, she worked as a tester for a disability rights organization, calling dozens of hotels to see if they had accessible shuttles. He said he was able to do so.
“This has to be dealt with systematically. You can’t deal with it one thing at a time,” she said.
Yvette Peggs, who uses a wheelchair, said simply requesting accommodations usually doesn’t work.
In hotels, I found the entrance to the bathroom to be too small, the bed to be too high, and the air conditioning to be out of reach. She said she typically tries to talk to management about these issues and sometimes sends letters explaining the barriers she encounters and how they can be resolved.
Most companies don’t make changes after receiving this feedback, she says.
Advocates say this is not unusual, as many companies tend to wait until they are sued before spending money to make changes.
“I think this law is being viewed as a proposal,” said Pegus, 36, of Canton, Georgia. “People just don’t care. It makes me feel rejected by the world.”
This feeling of rejection and exclusion from public life is common for people with disabilities, said co-author Jasmine Harris, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. article The Colombian Human Rights Law Review explains how people with disabilities struggle while traveling.
Despite hotels being legally required to disclose information about their property’s accessibility features in their reservation systems, people with disabilities may find misleading and inaccurate information on hotel websites. , says they regularly come across no information posted at all.
Harris said not posting accessibility information on a company’s website may not sound like a big deal, but it can increase the feeling of marginalization for people with disabilities and make the process of booking a hotel room or traveling more difficult. He said he would do so.
Some disabled people surveyed in her article said they had to send more than a dozen emails and call the same companies multiple times to see if they could get the equipment they needed. Some said there were none. Some found the process of finding accommodation so difficult that they decided to stay at home instead.
“They come to expect that they don’t have access,” she says. “And people opt out over and over again.”
Challenges in applying accessibility rules
Some people with disabilities say filing a lawsuit against a hotel or restaurant is scary.It’s called a tester. tend to face criticism He has been accused of cutting back on business for his own benefit. They also say it can be a tedious process and you usually don’t get any money out of it.
The way the law is written, a person filing this type of lawsuit typically can only seek reimbursement for legal costs and out-of-pocket costs.
Some state laws, such as California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, allow plaintiffs to obtain damages, which is why the majority of ADA lawsuits are based on these laws, said Rabia Belt of Stanford Law School. He said that contributes to the fact that they tend to be concentrated in states. Professor and legal historian specializing in disability.
Gregory Sconzo, a Florida attorney who specializes in disability discrimination cases, said the lack of monetary damages typically means lawyers are only compensated for the hours they work. Ta.
He and other legal experts say it typically only makes economic sense for lawyers to work on these cases if they represent testers and bring more cases. Ta.
Sconzo has represented clients in more than 1,000 cases related to accessibility barriers. Most of the lawsuits have resulted in settlements, Sconzo said, and companies have been ordered to fix problems, such as installing more pool elevators.
The Department of Justice can investigate and litigate noncompliance with the ADA; Supreme Court case briefsaid It argued that private lawsuits, including those brought by Tester, are “an essential complement” to the federal government’s enforcement of these laws. Organizations of people with disabilities must submit their own application form. claimed that The government has “failed to address the prevalence of noncompliance”.
But Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said the costs of these lawsuits could push small businesses into bankruptcy.
“Hoteliers have been receiving lawsuits and letters threatening lawsuits for years from serial litigants going after hundreds of hotels and other businesses at once,” Rogers said.
There were approximately 3,000 non-employment ADA cases in 2012, representing just over 1% of all federal civil cases. The number of lawsuits in 2022 increased to approximately 9,300, accounting for approximately 3.5% of all lawsuits.
Belt said the percentage of companies that are sued overall is relatively small. The increase in cases may be because the country’s aging population is leading to an increase in overall disability, she said. And people with disabilities who were born after the ADA was passed in 1990 are now adults.
This “post-ADA generation” has come to expect accessibility as a right and may be more willing to litigate now that they are adults, she said.
Another factor contributing to the increase is the internet. While it’s easier for businesses to reach more consumers, it also means consumers with disabilities are more likely to encounter accessibility barriers just by being online, Belt said.
Low awareness of barriers
Jeremy Wariner, 48, of Indianapolis, said part of the reason these problems persist is that people don’t understand the importance of the ADA or what it provides.
He also said companies may not be aware that they are breaking the law.
Mr. Wariner has worked in the hospitality industry for over 10 years, managing various hotels throughout his career. But, he said, in both formal education and on-the-job training, he learned little about the ADA and how to implement it.
It wasn’t until he became a double amputee in a traffic accident 18 years ago that he realized the importance of accommodation.
After the accident, he discovers that the only automatic door he can pass through to enter the hotel where he works is not working. When I asked the staff, they said it hasn’t been working for years.
“I encounter these things everywhere I go, but I didn’t realize it until I became a disabled person who had to rely on the ADA,” he said.
Warriner has never filed an accessibility lawsuit because the process is too cumbersome. But he tried a different approach.
Local coffee shops often don’t have wheelchair-accessible parking spaces because drive-thru cars block the parking spaces. After noticing the problem in March 2021, the company repeatedly raised the issue with store managers for two months.
Nothing has changed. So he filed a complaint with the Department of Justice.
He said that was over two years ago and the problem is still unresolved.
Caitlin Gilbert contributed to this report.
