How Restaurants are Failing People with Disabilities
Is your favorite brunch spot accessible?
People with disabilities should be able to enjoy eating out just as much as people without disabilities. Yet, many restaurants don't reflect this. This post explains what the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is, what it requires of restaurants and how restaurants are failing to live up to ADA standards.
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law designed to protect people with disabilities from discrimination. It includes guidelines for employers, businesses, government service providers and more. ADA regulations are meant to increase accessibility, reasonable accommodations, effective communication and overall quality of life for people with disabilities.
Why should the ADA matter to you?
About 26% of adults in the U.S. live with some type of functional disability and many more will eventually experience some mobility limitation, like a broken leg, a period of recovery after surgery, severe pregnancy symptoms or old age. You or someone you know probably has a disability or is experiencing limited mobility right now. This means that ADA regulations affect almost everyone in the U.S. at some point in their lifetime. Understanding ADA regulations and fighting for their enforcement are necessary.
How does the ADA apply to restaurants?
As businesses, restaurants need to be accessible and provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. By law, restaurants built after 1990 must adhere to all ADA regulations and restaurants built before 1990 must do their best to adhere to ADA regulations. Below is a list of the basic guidelines for restaurants.
ADA Guidelines
In Entryways
Restaurants must have disability parking near the building
The restaurant's entrance must be flush with the ground or have a ramp with a 2% slope
Door handles cannot require squeezing, turning, or more than 5 pounds of pressure to push or pull
Doorways must be 36 inches wide
In Dining Areas
Self-serve stations must be accessible (i.e., not too tall, not located in a narrow corridor, etc.)
All aisles, including those in entryways, between tables and leading to bathrooms and cashiers, must be at least 36 inches wide
Restaurants must have enough room for a wheelchair to turn around, including 36-inch aisles that come to a T or a 5-foot circular space
All items in aisles must be detectable with a cane (usually, no more than 27 inches off the floor or 4 inches away from a wall)
Tabletops must be 28 to 34 inches high to accommodate wheelchairs
If the dining room has seating that is fixed to the floor, at least 5% of tables must have open spaces for wheelchairs
All tables must have legroom that is at least 27 inches tall, 30 inches wide and 19 inches deep
In Restrooms
All restrooms must have braille signs
Bathrooms must have room for a wheelchair to enter, close the door, turn around, open the door and exit
Restrooms with stalls must include an accessible stall with safety bars
Restroom sinks and hand soap must be fully accessible (tall enough to approach with a wheelchair, not too tall to reach, must not require significant pressure or twisting, etc.)
Common ADA failures
Unsurprisingly, many restaurants blatantly fail to meet these requirements. You can probably easily think of failures in restaurants you've visited. In one of my favorite restaurants, the bathrooms are entirely unlabeled, with no writing or braille. In another, the bathrooms are only accessible if you ask a whole row of seated diners to stand up or move their chairs. In yet another, the entrance has a lip about 2 inches tall and there is no ramp in sight. These are just examples I can think of off the top of my head. Way (way way way) too many restaurants fail to meet ADA requirements.
Eater has covered this issue in a few articles. In one article, David Perry explains that people with disabilities often need to call ahead before visiting new restaurants to ask if they are truly accessible. However, calling ahead is rarely reliable because most restaurant workers just assume their restaurant is accessible. This confusion often results in restaurant workers scrambling to accommodate people with disabilities, making people with disabilities feel like an afterthought and a burden.
In another article, Ace Ratcliff says, "calling a restaurant to figure out whether they're actually wheelchair accessible is far more complicated than confirming a reservation." She goes on to explain that many employees say things like, "yes, the restaurant is accessible, but..." people in wheelchairs can't go to the bathroom, have to sit away from their party, need to use a different entrance or have to cope with some other major or minor inconvenience. To say the least, these circumstances don’t scream “hospitality” to me.
If these examples don't make it obvious, nobody strictly enforces ADA guidelines. And even when restaurants technically comply with ADA regulations, most don't create a welcoming environment for people with disabilities. The ADA is simply not living up to its promises.
How to Help
The situation is bleak, but it is not hopeless. Calling or writing to your local government and state representatives can make a world of difference. When you call, explain that you feel like the Americans with Disabilities Act is not being upheld and that you support the rights of people with disabilities.
In theory, you could also report locations that do not adhere to ADA guidelines. However, I've heard that these reports rarely lead to change and are mostly brushed under the rug. As another tactic, you could mention restaurants' lack of accessibility to employees or owners. Although employees usually have little to no say in ADA regulations, it can't hurt to put the issue on restaurants' radars kindly. As always, seek out more information about this issue and make good use of your right to vote!