A week or so ago, news broke of another ride-related ADA lawsuit alleging that a park’s disabled guest access policy is unlawfully discriminatory. As those of you who read the blog or who know me can attest, I think these kinds of lawsuits are going to be more frequent and more important to our industry for a host of reasons, most of which are discussed below. After hearing about this latest filing, I took the opportunity to run some thoughts through a fellow lawyer, Julie Mills, of Columbus, Ohio. Julie has a mobility disability after a vehicle accident, and more than a decade of experience “living and lawyering” the barriers and accessibility portions of the ADA. She authors a blog, The ADA:Titles II and III.
Given her background and experience, I
was very interested to get her take on the recent lawsuits and the ADA’s
application to the amusement industry.
Our conversation raised some interesting issues that I thought would be
worthwhile to share.