Wendy's to make stores more accessible to disabled

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 21, 1998 by Amy Zuber

WASHINGTON - A recent agreement reached by Wendy's International and the U.S. Department of Justice that settles issues over wheelchair accessibility in 1,700 units could signal that the government will target other national restaurant chains in future investigations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Wendy's agreement, which resulted from the government's first joint state and federal investigation, involved more restaurants than any other since the inception of the ADA.

"I am not privy to Justice Department strategy, but I think it is safe to assume they would look to other large chain-type restaurants to see if they can come up with similar agreements," said Mark J. Murphy, an attorney with the Disabilities Law Project in Pittsburgh, a private nonprofit law firm that represents people with disabilities. "They can get their biggest bang for the buck by dealing with a single company that has thousands of stores. I can only assume that other chains will be looked at to get another big-bang type of settlement."

The largest previous settlement with a restaurant chain came last year when Friendly Ice Cream Corp. agreed to modify some 700 restaurants over a six-year period.

But unlike the Friendly's settlement, which focused on wheelchair accessibility to such areas as entrances, bathrooms and pathways in the dining room, the Wendy's agreement calls attention to problems with serpentine queues - or winding customer waiting lines - inside counter-service restaurants.

"The problem comes with either having an aisle not wide enough or not having a turn-radius large enough to accommodate a person in a wheelchair," said John Wodatch, chief of the Disability Rights Section at the Justice Department.

Wendy's said it either would remove the serpentine lines or widen them in 1,700 company-owned stores. The settlement calls for the winding lines to be either 42 inches wide with a 48-inch turn radius or 36 inches wide with a 60-inch turn radius. The chain's franchisees were not included in the settlement, but the company agreed to urge them to follow it.

"This is not an issue dealing with access as much as it is dealing with technical compliance," said Steven Grover, vice president of technical services for the National Restaurant Association. "The fact that the DOJ [Department of Justice] is willing to put considerable resources into making sure that disabled people can wait in line like everybody else is troubling."

Grover said the Justice Department has moved beyond basic areas of access to peripheral issues involving standards that were developed more as a guide than a rule.

"Wendy's has already spent millions of dollars to provide access," he said. "Is it necessary for the Justice Department to go around with a micrometer and measure everything, or should we be happy that we have good access to restaurants? We say the money should be spent on providing safe and comfortable access."

Wendy's officials said renovations costs per store will be minimal. But as part of the agreement, the Dublin, Ohio-based chain will pay $50,000 to nine states where investigations were conducted and $12,000 in damages to five individuals who filed complaints about access to restaurants.

Several other national quick-serve chains, including Burger King and Taco Bell, that use winding waiting lines also face similar challenges. Taco Bell is involved in ongoing litigation, and last year Burger King settled a private civil lawsuit.

"Due to the success the disabled have had in getting access to restaurants, they are now addressing the remaining obstacles," said Betty Southard Murphy, an attorney specializing in employment and labor law and a partner with Baker & Hostetler in Washington. "Many service providers are not aware that certain configurations that they have used are not accessible to wheelchairs or are not comfortable to people with disabilities."

Previously many restaurant chains said they accommodated customers in wheelchairs by having them bypass the serpentine queue and go straight to the counter to be served. But people with disabilities have said they do not want special treatment, nor do they want to be forced to wait to the side of the line until an employee recognizes them.

Peter Stack, Taco Bell's vice president of public affairs, said he could not comment on the chain's current litigation, but he said Taco Bell is committed to making its restaurants accessible.

Burger King agreed as part of its settlement last year to widen waiting lines that were too narrow. But the chain did not eliminate the serpentine queues because they are more effective than multiple static lines, according to Kim Miller, a spokeswoman for Burger King. She said a single serpentine queue in a restaurant offers a more equitable serving process than do multiple lines. Miller added that the winding queue also gives customers the opportunity to focus on the menu board instead of on which line is moving the fastest.

The ADA, which went into effect six years ago, requires new buildings to be constructed within certain architectural guidelines. For restaurants built before 1993, the law requires "reasonable physical changes," including entrance ramps with handrails and access to bathrooms.