What you must do for the disabled - includes related information on access rules

Nation's Business, Dec, 1991 by Bradford McKee

Counting down to late January, businesses are bracing for implementation of the first equal-access rules drafted for the Americans with Disabilties Act. The law, enacted in July 1990, requires companies serving the public to accommodate people with disabilities just as they accommodate nondisabled customers and clients.

By Jan. 26, 1993, all commercial firms, even those that don't serve the public, must make new buildings and grounds conform to strict codes of access for people with disabilities.

In new construction, however, where access is hampered by the terrain, a new facility may not have to meet total-access standards, although it must be made as accessible as possible. In addition, access rules do not apply to temporary parts of construction sites and places reached only by catwalks or crawl spaces.

Temporary buildings and facilities--structures such as bleachers, exhibits, pedestrian walkways, and reviewing stands--also must be accessible.

What must you, as a business owner, do to comply? What can you not do? Where must you offer access? What is access? What happens if your structural barriers aren't down and accommodations aren't ready by Jan. 26? Can you be sued? Can you get help?

Outlined below are the more prominent rules of the disabilities law as they apply to a company's existing structures and to alterations made to the structures. On subsequent pages are details on the requirements for new construction.

Meeting New Access Standards

The disabilities law protects anybody with a physical or mental impairment that restricts routine living.

The law also protects anyone with a history of impairment, as well as people "regarded" as having impairments, and, quite broadly, people associated with disabled individuals.

The rules drawn up for the Americans with Disabilities Act cover the full range of public accommodations, including lodging, restaurants, theaters, stores, service firms, rail depots, museums, parks, private schools, care centers, and health spas (except private clubs, which, like religious entities, are exempt from the law as it pertains to accommodations).

Firms may not offer inferior substitutes to clients with disabilities, either directly or in contracts. Services and goods for the disabled must be available in the mainstream as much as possible.

Part of this integration applies to the rules the business makes for its customers. Those rules also must be nondiscriminatory for people with disabilities.

However, equal access should pose no "direct threat" to anyone's safety or health. And although insurers still may take risks into account in setting premiums for a firm that serves the public, a firm may not in turn use its insurance coverage as an excuse for avoiding the law's requirements or refusing to accommodate people with disabilities.

Access in Existing Facilities

Firms must make "reasonable" changes in existing facilities, goods, servides, and policies to afford access to people with disabilities. However, in offering such access, companies are not required to "fundamentally alter" anything they offer to any customer. A reasonable change might be to allow a visually impaired patron to bring a guide dog into a store or to allow a customer in a wheelchair to pay at an express counter regardless of the number of purchases.

To make sure disabled customers such as those with hearing or vision problems are not excluded from service, businesses may have to provide assistance such as interpreters, readers, Braille materials, or text telephones. These aids are not required if they involve "significant difficulty or expense." However, if such aids are offered, the business may not charge extra for them or for any accommodation.

Companies that accommodate the public must remove architectural and communications obstacles to the handicapped if the removal is "readily achievable." The decisive test, again, is that barrier removal should not bring "significant difficulty or expense."

Readily achievable changes could mean moving shelves, widening doorways, or placing cups near a drinking fountain.

Barrier removal and alterations should conform as much as possible to access codes for new construction. (See "Point By Point: The Rules Of Access," beginning on Page 38.)

In places where barrier removal would not afford access to the disabled, firms should try alternatives such as offering curb service, home delivery, or help in taking items from shelves.

Private firms offering transportation to the public, regardless of whether it is the firm's principal business, may not buy or lease vehicles that cannot be used by the disabled, including those in wheelchairs.

Firms offering transportation as a sideline to service--shuttles or trams--must make them barrier-free wherever doing so would be "readily achievable." The rules do not require installation of hydraulic lifts, however.

In employee-only areas--places such as storerooms--there must be provisions to allow people with disabilities to approach, enter, and exit.