#nohr620

They could contine to keep their buildings inaccessible for people like me and many of my friends, which limits the things we are able to do in the real world. #HandsOffMyADA #NoHR620 #HR620

Read more about the harm this bill will do to people with disabilities.

1. The bill’s proponents have forgotten the everyday experiences of millions of ordinary people with disabilities who cannot shop, enjoy recreation, or transact personal business like most Americans take for granted.

>> For example, why should a wheelchair user be unable to join her family at a restaurant, just because the owner has resisted installing a ramp for the past 27 years? Such things happen to many people with disabilities every day. <<

2. When business owners have resisted the ADA for over 27 years, sometimes a lawsuit is the only way to make the ADA’s promise of equal participation real. Even so, if you examine the court records, there really are very few ADA cases.

3. The ADA is carefully crafted to take the needs of business owners into account. Compliance is simply not exorbitantly expensive. But this bill would remove any reason for a business to comply. Instead, they can take a “wait and see” attitude, and do nothing until they happen to be sued.

4. HR 620 requires a person with a disability to give a business owner who has barriers to access a written notice, and 60 days to even acknowledge that there is a problem—and then another 120 days to begin to fix it. No other civil rights group is forced to wait 180 days to enforce their civil rights.

5. HR 620 calls for education by the Department of Justice. But there are already extensive efforts, including by DOJ and the ADA Centers, to educate business owners about their ADA obligations. Businesses that violate the ADA should be held accountable.

6. Concerns about money damage awards are behind this bill. But that has nothing to do with the ADA, because the ADA does not allow money damages. Such damages are only available under a handful of state laws. This bill will do nothing to prevent damage awards under state laws.

7. Accessibility standards, such as those the ADA includes, are extremely important. They are not minor details, but rather, are essential to ensure true accessibility.

8. Concerns about serial litigants are also behind this bill. However, courts already have the power to deal with frivolous litigants and their attorneys.

9. It is troubling how this bill blames people with disabilities for public accommodations' failure to comply with the ADA. Why should people with disabilities pay the price of an inaccessible environment, where we cannot live our lives like everyone else? The true blame belongs on the heads of business owners who have delayed for 27 years and done nothing to comply with the ADA.