THE Bikini Beach Hotel in Panama City Beach, Florida, serves sunbathers of all types. So John Gheesling, the owner, was surprised to be sued for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Apparently a visitor last August found the pool lacked a wheelchair lift, though the hotel keeps one available inside. “Never had anyone ask to use it,” Mr Gheesling says. But fighting such lawsuits is tricky. He has already spent $8,000 in legal fees and there is no end in sight. As it happens, the same plaintiff sued nearly 50 other businesses along the state’s Panhandle in the same month, and filed 529 ADA suits in Florida in 2014.
Signed into law in 1990, the ADA bars firms from discriminating against people with disabilities, whether they are employees or customers. Banks, shops, hotels and other “public accommodations” must remove barriers to the “full and equal enjoyment” of their goods and services. This guarantee may sound vague, but new technical standards from the Department of Justice, which went into effect in 2012, dictate everything from the slope of a ramp to the height of a bathroom basin. The regulations are well-meaning but...
from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1d4yNXU
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