News Articles
The following information is forwarded to you by the DBTAC: Great Lakes ADA Center (www.adagreatlakes.org) for your information:
For more articles across the country regarding the ADA go to our "ADA In the Headlines" page at: http://www.adagreatlakes.org/Headlines/
The Press-Enterprise (California)
Updates expected for Americans with Disabilities Act
By Rodd Cayton
In 1990, Congress set out to ensure that disabled people could shop, work or ride a train as easily as everyone else.
It appears, at least in some quarters, to have been a successful effort.
Proposed new rules to the Americans With Disabilities Act due this summer, advocates said, should probably be focused on clarifying who counts as disabled under the law and getting businesses and government entities to comply, rather than adding new requirements.
The U.S. Department of Justice will propose new rules related to the act sometime in the next few months, spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said.
Proposed requirements being considered include:
Visible workplace alarms, which would allow deaf and hard-of-hearing employees to be made aware of an emergency situation.
Additional wheelchair-accessible seating at stadiums, theaters and other entertainment venues, spread out at varying distances from the stage or screen.
One in every six accessible parking spaces to be van accessible, up from one of eight.
TTY, or text telephone, equipment in all buildings with four or more public telephones.
Wider doorways and entrances to galley kitchens, public restrooms, hotel rooms and public housing.
Marilyn Golden, of the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, said the act has had an enormous positive impact, allowing the disabled to more easily do things others take for granted, for example, going across the neighborhood to pick up dry-cleaning (made possible by a wheelchair accessible shop entrance), visit friends out of town (thanks to a bus with a lift for the chair), or order a pizza though deaf (through a text-enabled telephone).
Rulings Affect Scope
She fears that court rulings will erode the advancements and wants Congress to intercede.
"A lot of court decisions have limited in scope who (the act) applied to," Golden said. "The federal bench has gotten more conservative over the last 15 years, and has limited the scope to the point that it's truly ludicrous. There have been court decisions where an individual missing a limb was ruled not covered as a person with a disability according to the ADA."
She said court rulings have also excluded people with epilepsy and diabetes from among the groups protected against discrimination by the act, and thus it's legal to pass over a job applicant because she's a diabetic or epileptic patient.
Magnuson said the justice department is also concerned that there may not be adequate protection for individuals with "hidden disabilities." The proposed rules won't cover employment, she said, because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has primary rule-making authority for that part of the law.
In the past year, the department has gotten an East Coast summer camp provider to end discrimination against children who use insulin pumps to control diabetes, and ordered Clear Channel Entertainment to allow diabetics to bring their insulin and testing supplies into its venue for concerts and other activities.
Critics of the act, including the California Chamber of Commerce, oppose the new rules, saying they could bring excessive expense for some businesses, such as neighborhood grocery stores.
Golden said the original act calls for businesses to remove barriers to access to the extent that such removal is readily achievable, meaning that by law, they don't have to perform tasks they couldn't afford to.
Lawsuits Force Compliance
Critics also say that the act has spawned a cottage industry in accessibility lawsuits. Some disabled people have been listed as plaintiffs in hundreds of cases. Riverside resident John Lonberg and Golden said the lawsuits are not indicative necessarily of greed on the parts of patients, but rather are the only true tool available for bringing some parties into compliance. Lonberg, a retired teacher and former member of a Riverside board that studied accessibility issues, recently won a lawsuit accusing the Riverside city government of failing to comply with the act. That judgment requires the city to make curbs and sidewalks accessible in numerous areas. Lonberg said he has been a plaintiff in 100 to 150 lawsuits, over the last 20 years, fewer than 10 a year. He said he doesn't agree with the tactics of some plaintiffs who file hundreds of suits per year, but if businesses have to pay, it's their own fault. "Nobody was ever penalized for having a barrier that wasn't really there," Lonberg said. "Those suits get dismissed." After final rules are approved, they will be published, but can become effective only after Congress has had 60 working days to consider them, said Magnuson. If Congress does not act to prevent it, the rules take effect sometime after that time period. Some provisions could include effective dates, but deadlines for other provisions may be set later. Lonberg and Holden said that between businesses that drag their feet on compliance and a federal bench that has limited the act's coverage, it's crucial not to lose momentum. "Forward progress is slowing to a crawl," said Lonberg, who has used a wheelchair since 1983, when he was in an auto accident. "And in some cases, actually backing up." Reach Rodd Cayton at 951-368-9412 or rcayton@PE.com
Source: http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_D_ada27.8c1653.html