Stop Attacks on the Americans with Disabilities Act! _
Take Action!_
(http://capwiz.com/rochestercdr/utr/1/BDUPRYSGQC/DIYQRYSJGQ/8522757981) Tell
the hotel associations to stop trying to weaken the ADA!
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a proposed rule that would
require hotels with pools and other pools open to the public to provide
lifts or sloped entries to make the pools accessible to people who use
wheelchairs or have other mobility disabilities. The rule was set to go into
effect on March 15, 2012, giving these pool owners two years to install pool
lifts. Instead of urging their members to comply with the rules and provide
access, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) and the Asian
American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) launched a campaign to overturn the
access requirement and weaken the ADA.
The hotel industry has used many excuses to avoid installing pool lifts,
including:
* Installing pool lifts are too expensive;
* Fixed pool lifts are unsafe for other guests and their children;
* People with disabilities don’t go to hotels; and
* People with disabilities will make pools unsanitary.
They said actually we’d poop in their pools! Seriously.
The Disability Community has attempted to work with these hotel
associations to resolve this issue, but the hotel associations have made it
clear
that they will keep fighting the requirement to install fixed pool lifts.
This attack on the ADA isn’t just an assault on our right to access pools.
It lays the groundwork for other groups to seek exemptions from making
their programs, services and facilities accessible. This is an attack on the
entire Disability Community. Ultimately, we could not just lose our access
rights, but other rights under the ADA, including our right to live in the
most integrated setting as affirmed by the Olmstead decision.
TAKE ACTION NOW so that the hotel industry, including the AH&LA and the
AAHOA, understands we won’t let them continue to discriminate against people
with disabilities and will not let them weaken our civil rights
protections!
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