Hotel ADA Website Compliance - What You Need to Know
Hotel News Resource
Most people can experience the world through the internet. Travel information and choices to make those travel arrangements are at our fingertips. Now imagine a world where you could not easily access the internet to search for hotels and airlines that provide accommodations and accessibility for your specific needs? For most of us, this is not something we need to consider but, for the disabled, it’s a daily challenge.
To understand their frustrations in navigating a site is to understand what it means to make your hotel website “ADA compliant”. You need to view it from their perspective. That is, putting yourself in the place of a disabled person will better help you understand what it means in terms of making your website accessible.
There are four major categories of disability types: Visual, Hearing, Motor and Cognitive. For each disability category there are certain types of adaptations in the design of web content. Some of these can be helpful to most everyone, like well-organized content or clear navigation.
With the laws of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA, the blind have gone from braille or audio tapes to screen reading software; the deaf have gone from using a stick to type commands to special keyboards or eye-tracking software. In all cases, the changes provided more freedom and independence to the disabled.
Despite the possibilities offered by these technological advances, there are still sites that have not adapted basic principles that would allow the disabled to access, not only text, but also graphics.
ADA advocates worried about new Republican bill
WBFO
A recently passed House bill has many in the disability community speaking out. Advocates say the ADA Education and Reform Act would gut many provisions under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Ericka Jones, a Systems Advocate with the Center for Disability Rights says now when a person files a complaint about a business not being accessible, it is reviewed and resolved fairly soon. However, this new bill would give businesses 180 days to act.
"That’s six months," Jones says. "Six months that a person doesn’t have access to a restaurant or movie theater or whatever business it is."
Jones says you can only find out so much about a business on the internet and that it is frustrating to only find out a place is not accessible once you get there.
"Imagine you’re going on a date. You haven’t met this person and you show up and you’re a wheelchair user, but there’s no ramp and there’s several steps to get in," she says. "What do you do at that point? That’s humiliating."
Jones believes if this were happening to another minority group there would be more outrage, adding that some people sympathize with the businesses. She says all complaints are trying to do is make places more accessible for everyone.
She says there is an idea out there that every disabled person is just waiting for an opportunity to use what is being called "drive-by lawsuits." A drive-by lawsuit is when someone sues a company under the Americans with Disabilities Act even if they are not a customer of the place; they notice from afar it is not accessible.
Jones says bills like these should not be passed just because of a few bad people and that the fault for those lawsuits should be on the lawyers filing them.
Ignorance of Interplay between FMLA and ADA Can Be Costly To Employers
The National Law Review
One mistake often made by employers is assuming that after an employee has exhausted his or her 12 weeks of protected Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave, the employer’s obligation is fulfilled. While this may satisfy the employer’s medical leave obligations, the employer also must account for any potential duties under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA requires employers to “reasonably accommodate” employees with disabilities and such accommodation can include granting additional leave.
A California case highlights this point. A California jury, finding that her former employer had violated the ADA, awarded a former drug addiction counselor more than $4.5 million in damages. Hill v. Asian American Drug Abuse Program, Inc., No. BC582516 (Cal. Sup. Ct. Jan. 19, 2018). Della Hill, while out on protected medical leave after breaking her arm, was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Her medical leave was set to expire on March 23, 2015, but prior to its expiration, she submitted additional medical information to her employer on her diagnosis and requested additional leave. Instead of granting the request, her employer, the Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP), terminated her on March 31, 2015, for failing to return from medical leave.
House Passes Bill to Make ADA Accessibility Lawsuits Harder to Bring
SHRM
Small businesses should have a chance to correct accessibility violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) before they are sued, say Republicans in the House of Representatives. To give businesses that opportunity, they passed the ADA Education and Reform Act (H.R. 620) on Feb. 15 by a vote of 225-192.
If enacted, the legislation would amend Title III of the ADA, which prohibits public accommodations—hotels, restaurants, theaters, private schools, private day care centers and health care providers—from discriminating against disabled customers or other individuals. Individuals would not be able to sue businesses because they weren't able to access or use parts of their buildings or premises because of their disabilities until the business owners fulfilled certain notice requirements.
The bill does not apply to Title I of the law, which prohibits disability discrimination by employers, though HR professionals sometimes are the only ones keeping businesses apprised of their accessibility obligations under Title III.
Medical marijuana in the workplace: Where do things stand?
HR Dive
Marijuana has been listed as an illegal Schedule I drug under federal law since Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 (CSA). However, in recent years, a number of states have passed bills that decriminalize or legalize medical or recreational marijuana use. As of the writing of this article, nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted measures legalizing marijuana for recreational and medicinal use, and 30 states have legalized medical marijuana use. According to a Gallup poll, support for the drug reached new highs in 2017, with the poll showing that 64 percent of Americans favor legalization. When asked specifically about the legalization of medical marijuana, that number grew to 83 percent, according to a recent Marist College survey.
Mondaq News Alerts
It's on the news; it's the subject of PSA's; it's on signs on city streets warning citizens against giving money to panhandlers because it might result in their deaths from overdose; it's in every size and type of workplace. Although employers have long had to deal with employee alcohol and drug use, the sheer magnitude and scope of the opioid crisis has businesses reeling on a number of fronts. With the advent of marijuana decriminalization and expanded use for medicinal purposes, the legal and human challenges are great. The issues with which businesses are faced vary considerably and are taxing the resources and resilience of human resource professionals and those charged with the responsibility to address what used to be called "personnel" matters.