New disability regs prompt chorus of concern

[Tab]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080724/ap_on_re_us/disability_rules

WASHINGTON - Thousands of gallons of water pulse through cascading waterfalls and rapids at Adventure Mini Golf in Lake Worth, Fla. The course, which covers about an acre, features different elevations.

When people ask whether it's accessible for the disabled, owner Jerry Doser says he jokingly tells them, "No, but I'll paint some lines in the parking lot and put some cups out there and then you can play."

"But who wants to pay to play that?" he adds.

Courses like Doser's could end up in the annals of miniature golf history.

Miniature golf courses are among the millions of businesses and other public facilities that would be affected by proposed regulatory changes under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the milestone 1990 civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.

The proposed regulations address a wide range of facilities — including access to courthouses, drinking fountains, amusement park rides, stadium and theater seating, fishing piers, boat slips and bowling lanes — and establish specific requirements for qualifying accessible designs. For miniature golf courses, 50 percent of the holes would have to be accessible for players in wheelchairs.
...
Costs to 7 million affected businesses plus state and local government agencies would total $23 billion over 40 years, according to the Justice Department. But they'd also realize billions from being more accessible to disabled customers. The Census Bureau says there are more than 51 million disabled Americans, representing 18 percent of the population.

The rules would apply to new businesses and facilities and to alterations of existing ones. Businesses also would have to remove "readily achievable" barriers — changes that don't require a lot of difficulty or expense. The proposal was published by the government last month. Final regulations could take effect next year, after a period for public comment.

The proposed regulations also define "service animals" for the blind and other disabled groups as dogs or other domestic animals; the regulations would exclude wild animals such as monkeys, which people with spinal cord injuries sometimes use for help with daily activities.


Read more: AP

---

I have nothing to complain about more access (my niece is in a wheelchair, my brother has some limitations) but some of this gets ridiculous. To make it a requirement for new construction, sure, but for retrofitting certain installations, some government funding help is needed.

As it happened, I played mini-golf the other week for the first time in a year. There's no way I can envision that particular course, based on its physical configuration, to meet the requirements. It'd practically have to be rebuilt from scratch, or they could add more holes but I don't think they have the land to do that.

[xfundy]

1. "No, but I'll paint some lines in the parking lot and put some cups out there and then you can play.

Hmmm... sounds like a typical Publican.

Doesn't look like they're calling for retrofitting, but reasonable accommodation in new construction to existing courses. I'm not in a chair, don't have any family that currently is, but the idea that spaces shouldn't be built with everyone in mind is, to me, repellant.

[Frisbee]

2. A little common sense goes a long way...

Asking small businesses (and I don't mean small by SBA terms, but say with less than 1 million in annual sales) to meet some of these requirements is like asking them to close their doors.

Also, there should be some common sense exemptions granted. A company I know of, was going to install a shower facility for its over the road drivers at one of it's locations so drivers could take a quick shower before going back on the road. They were told that it had to make the showers handicap accessible, which was going to run the cost up by some ridiculous amount that I am now forgetting. So they just scrapped the whole idea. The funny thing was, these truckers were hauling, loading and unloading engines, transmissions and differentials. Not only is there no way that someone who needs handicap access handle this job, but many non-disabled people probably couldn't even do it. So what was an attempt to do something for the employees was in fact just not done because they couldn't get any kind of variance on it.

[Warpy]

3. This strikes me as on a par with wheelchair accessible ski lifts

In other words, when ups and downs are part of the point, it just seems a little silly.

I say this as someone with poor balance and spinal arthritis who would be pretty much physically incapable of navigating this course.

However, should he expand his course, providing areas of it accessible to us gimps would be a nice gesture.

However, I'd like to see efforts to provide access concentrated into necessary areas, first, like government, apartment and retail buildings. We're getting a little closer, but we're not there yet.

[Tab]

4. Just as a side note

I agree it's nuts to require ski lifts to be wheelchair accessible (although the person could get into a gondola), but having grown up in the ski industry and being a former ski (and snowboard) instructor, you'd be surprised - many mountains (of a certain size) run handicapped programs. There's specialized equipment, and they race (usually sitting down on a - damn, I forget what they're called - but it's basically a mono-ski with poles) and some of them are a lot better than the general public. Usually if they do that, they were ski fanatics to begin with. A handful of others with no background go out, just for the chance to have a positive sports experience, but there are many paraplegics that go skiing. They have helpers, obviously, and don't take up the actual wheelchair (although I know of a few incidents where the chair was outfitted with skis and taken to the top).

I do get your point, though - not trying to give you a hard time. See you in C & B!

[Bluenorthwest]

6. You saved me the trouble...

I have a friend who uses a wheelchair and has skied the world.

[Grinchie]

5. This is another example of how evil the republicans are in turning public sentiment away.

I fully support the Disabilities Act, but when these regulations are inflated with requirements that really go in the face of necessity, the republicans are able to turn a vast number of people away from the true issue, which is to slowly move away from innaccessible building designs.

However, since the Government is broke, and can barely make Courthouses accessible, due to the extreme age of these buildings, they figure out a childish and evil way to hurt everyone else, cause public injury.

It's just another way of lining their pockets, either through winning elections or inflating the cost of construction. Typical Corporate decision that is good for the bottom line, even is we have to pay for it.

[Pastiche423]

7. Are you saying you think

republics pushed for these new regulations?

[pop goes the weasel]

8. whine whine whine

I really don't want to hear it about how the poor business owner might get sued. Most of the time, people with disabilities simply avoid spending their money or interacting with jerks. If you own a business, and you don't ever have disabled customers, then you can bet you are in violation of ADA. Go on, keep doing what you are doing. Just don't whine when someone decides to force you to comply with a law you knew was on the books but you chose to ignore.

There are tax breaks for making things accessible. The company that chose to not put in showers rather than put in one that meets ADA requirements? Idiots for passing up the tax break. Idiots.