Expanding Access for the Disabled

Disability advocates are carefully looking at the Bush Administration’s new rules concerning the handicapped. The new regulations would give people with disabilities more access to many facilities from which they are currently barred. They would also update and revise the national standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act, in an effort to respond to the needs of an aging population and an increasing number of disabled war veterans.

The new rules would apply to more than seven million businesses and all state and local government agencies, and potentially assist the 51 million Americans who live with some sort of disability. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticizes the proposal, hailing it as too costly.

On the other hand, advocates for the disabled say that the rules do not go far enough, as the number of people living with a handicap increases each year. By 2010, it is estimated that 2% of the adult population will use wheelchairs, while 4% will use some sort of mobility device.

The proposed rules would change the way that facilities are built in order to be more accessible to the disabled. For example, courts would have to provide a lift or ramp to make sure that people in wheelchairs could make it to the witness stand. Light switches in hotel rooms could not be more than 48 inches high.

At the Bernstein Law Firm, we believe that it is essential to increase the accessibility to public facilities for those who need it. We are committed to protecting and expanding the rights of the disabled.

In our law office, attorney Richard Bernstein manages the department of litigators who focus on representing the disabled in complex, groundbreaking civil rights litigation. His work has won important victories in cases involving the City of Detroit, Northwest Airlines, and the University of Michigan.