Unreasonable Accommodation

The case against the Americans with Disabilities Act

Brian Doherty from the August/September 1995 issue

(Page 3 of 7)

DOJ didn't agree. Its complaints included: The handrails on the entrance ramp had two more inches between them and the restaurant's window than the law allows; the restroom grab bar was mounted two-and-a-half inches too far from the back wall; carpeting ended two inches before the patio door; and the wine storage room didn't have a ramp to its door (which was also not wide enough).

DOJ's biggest complaint was the back alley exit ramp, insisted on by Denver as a fire-safety precaution. Because delivery trucks use the alley, the handrails did not extend all the way to the bottom of the ramp, as the ADA demands; if they did, trucks would knock them down forthwith. The ramp was also steeper than the ADA allows. Since federal ADA regulations don't require this exit ramp, the feds decided Taylor should remove it. Disgusted, Taylor says, "You can't use common sense--would you rather use a ramp slightly too steep without handrails all the way to the end, or would you rather die in a fire?" The ramp is now gone.

The suit was settled with a $16,000 fine. Six thousand dollars of it went to protesters from Atlantis/ADAPT, a local handicapped-activist group that picketed the Barolo Grill.

"The federal government flew two attorneys for every meeting, gave them hotels, rental cars, meals. They came in from D.C. seven times," says Taylor. "We figure at least $250,000 was spent to force a restaurant in Denver to comply." He says the restaurant continues to average about one wheelchair-using patron a month--the same as before the case: "Nor have we ever once had a customer's wheels touch the ramp to the upper platform."

Mike Auberger thinks Taylor has an attitude problem. Auberger is a member of Atlantis/ADAPT, the local activist group who set up tables on the sidewalk in front of the Barolo, eating cans of Chef-Boy-R-Dee and drinking cheap wine with a sign displayed: "Accessible Seating."

"Taylor created his own problems," Auberger says. "It's real clear the contractor and owner violated city construction laws. You should expect them to come down hard. They could have made him take everything out.

"We don't appear to public opinion to be reasonable, but we are," Auberger says. He and Robin Stephens, and four of their ADAPT colleagues, met me in March in their offices. Despite the phony egalitarianism implicit in their wanting all to meet me together, Auberger, the only one with a conventionally clear voice, did most of the speaking. Stephens, whom Auberger credits as the main organizer of their 23 ADA lawsuits (so far) against Denver businesses, talked a little.

They aimed their first wave of suits at the Cherry Creek district where Barolo is located, "a real chi-chi area where all the watches cost $5,000," Auberger says. Their campaigns usually start by writing letters, followed by demonstrations. Only then do they resort to lawsuits.

"It's a hell of a lot easier to do it in a meeting. It takes a hell of a lot of energy to do the demonstrations, to do the lawsuits. We'll do that if that's what it takes. But my preference is, let's do it nice and resolve it as amicably as possible."

After Cherry Creek--where only the Barolo case garnered DOJ involvement--Atlantis/ADAPT has its eyes on lower downtown Denver, an area with mostly older buildings. Another wave of demonstrations and possible lawsuits is building up to hit Denver, and ADAPT has affiliate organizations in 33 other cities. With the ADA's provisions for private-party suits, these groups have a direct financial incentive--as well as ideological motivations--to launch such campaigns.

Private citizens aren't the only ones bedeviled by strict application of the ADA. The Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has already spent almost $40 million on ADA reform, says spokeswoman Patricia Lambe. So it's not just a matter of money that made them rebel against a particular ADA requirement that they found irrelevant and completely unnecessary. "It's principle and science," Lambe insists, explaining D.C. Metro's refusal to change the platform edging in all their train stations to a raised surface of rubber bumps--allegedly to prevent blind riders from falling in front of trains.

The D.C. Metro system commissioned a study that found the current platform edging perfectly suitable to prevent that tragedy--which occurs far less frequently than sighted people falling. The rare falls by the blind that have occurred were caused by things other than the difference in surfacing between the edge and the main platform anyway, Lambe insists. "Where is the data saying this was ever a problem?"

Besides, she says, the ADA was meant to be a civil rights law, not a safety regulation. The D.C. Metro system told the Federal Transit Administration it intends to keep its current platform edging. Instead, under an agreement with the FTA, the Metro will intensify the flashing lights at the platform edge.

For many individuals and municipal authorities, though, cost is the issue. The National Association of Counties estimates the ADA will cost counties $2.8 billion to comply from 1994-98. The U.S. Conference of Mayors sees cities spending $2.2 billion over the same period.

Consider sidewalk curb cuts, which provide mini-ramps for wheelchair users on city sidewalks. Various municipalities estimate the cost of installing the cuts at $500 to $4,000 each--and most cities have a lot of curbs. The ADA's curb-cut requirement kicks in any time work is done on roads or sidewalks. Philadelphia recently lost a suit in which it argued that merely resurfacing the street in front of the sidewalk shouldn't mean having to replace the curbs. Now just filling potholes can trigger ADA-related sidewalk overhauls.

Comments

waffles|7.27.10 @ 1:03PM|#

let's do the time warp again!

nfl jerseys|11.17.10 @ 12:27AM|#

myjf

سهمي|12.11.10 @ 4:53PM|#

asgasg

قبلة الوداع|8.16.11 @ 6:33PM|#

thank u

منتديات العراق|8.16.11 @ 10:34PM|#

thank you

http://www.iraqn.com/
http://www.v9f.net/chat