"While Congress probably intended to help people with serious handicaps, the unintended consequence of the [ADA] has been that many people with conditions few consider to be true handicaps are using the law to gain preferential treatment."

-- The Foundation for Economic Education            

Dogs at the airport:  The over-accommodation of society.  Every good societal intention can be perverted for personal gain.  Those in society who feign disability or frailty are leveraging the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure their lives are easier.  All the while, those with real disabilities long to for a life where it is not necessary.  When the ADA was signed into law in 1990 by George H.W. Bush, there was purposeful intent to create access to buildings, transportation, and even communication for those members of society who were limited in some physical capacity. [...] Recently there has been a shift, where the accommodation of a service animal has become corrupted by a narcissistic hypersensitive segment of society that seems to think that a service animal and emotional support animal (ESA) are one in the same.  This, of course, is not the case.

Massive Brawl In South Carolina Leaves One Cop In The Hospital.  Footage captured on a police officer's dash camera showed a large group of people involved in a fight outside a South Carolina bar.  It also showed when a responding police officer falls to the ground while he tried detaining a woman who was involved in the brawl.  Footage of the brawl is heavily redacted, blurring out copious amounts of nudity.  In the video, the Goose Creek police officer who suffered a medical event can be seen collapsing on the ground.  [Video clip]

Biden's Justice Department Sues Over Tennessee's HIV Prostitution Law.  The Biden administration's Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday against Tennessee's aggravated prostitution law for people with HIV.  The law, which imposes tougher penalties for engaging in prostitution while knowingly infected with HIV, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Justice Department claims in its lawsuit.  The department said Tennessee's law elevates the crime simply "because the individual has HIV, regardless of any actual risk of harm."

400-pound former student who can barely walk sues university for weight discrimination after he cannot become gym teacher.  A severely overweight former student has sued a Detroit university after he was unable to complete its student-teaching requirement to become a certified gym teacher.  David Lopez, a 44-year-old man who weighs more than 400 pounds, has filed a discrimination lawsuit against Wayne State University.  Lopez told the Detroit News that he fulfilled all the requirements for WSU's physical education kinesiology program except for student teaching because the school would not provide him the necessary accommodations.  Lopez was initially placed to complete a student-teaching assignment at a school district in Dearborn, a city that borders Detroit.  Before the student-teaching term began in winter 2022, a doctor indicated that Lopez would require accommodations on account of his health conditions, which include asthma, hypertension, and diabetes.  He also cannot stand or walk for long periods of time, the doctor claimed.

The Climate Alarmists Are Deeply Disturbed People.  We feel confident in saying that not a single prediction of global warming catastrophe has occurred.  The alarmists know their forecasts of doom have been comically wrong.  But rather than admit their errors, they point to natural events as evidence that they're not wrong and keep warning us that the end is near.  There must be something wrong with them.  It was David Viner, a senior research scientist at the University of East Anglia's climatic research unit, who told the Independent in 2000 that within just a few years, winter snow was going to become "a very rare and exciting event."  "Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said, 22 years before snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere reached a record high.  Retired meteorologist Anthony Watts called Viner's foolish statement "likely one of the most cited articles ever that illustrates the chutzpah and sheer hubris on display from a climate scientist who was so certain he could predict the future with certainty."

ADA Shakedown Lawsuits Are on the Rise.  Before Roozbeh Farahanipour became chair of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, his restaurant was sued because the bathroom was non-compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  "It lacked guard rails and the bag hook was too high on the bathroom door," he said.  Farahanipour settled with the law firm that filed the complaint for $11,000.  "That was really hard on me because we did not have that money and I had to borrow the money," he said.  "I did not know the legal system or how to even answer the lawsuit when it was served."  Farahanipour, whose country of origin is Iran, was sued again by the same law firm at a second restaurant he opened in 2021.  He paid $17,000 to settle the claim[.]  "Immigrants are the best target because they are more scared," Farahanipour told The Epoch Times.  "They don't know the law.  They are not comfortable with the language and many other issues."  Farahanipour is not alone in having been sued twice for allegedly violating the ADA.

Mask-Optional Schools Hit with Suspiciously Identical Suits Alleging ADA Violations.  On the heels of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that put the kibosh on a statewide school masking mandate, lawyers in the Keystone State are trying a new tack to reinstate a classroom mask requirement — suing individual school districts in federal court on the grounds that they are failing to protect medically vulnerable students.  Over the last month, at least four nearly identical lawsuits have been filed in Pittsburgh- and Philadelphia-area school districts that recently made masks optional, accusing them of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a civil-rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability.

Wheelchair users sue Baltimore over 'widespread' violations of federal accessibility requirements.  Three wheelchair users filed a class-action lawsuit against Baltimore, Maryland, alleging "widespread" violations of federal accessibility requirements by the city, such as failing to install and maintain curb ramps and sidewalks.  "The issue is failure over time to bring sidewalks and curb ramps around Baltimore City into compliance with the Americans with Disability Act requirements," said Rebecca Rodgers, a senior staff attorney for the New York-based Disability Rights Advocates group.  They filed their complaint in the District Court of Maryland on June 10 in conjunction with the IMAGE Center, a 501c3 nonprofit group dedicated to "new thinking about disability."

Forgetting History and Misrepresenting History is America's Real Pandemic.  [Scroll down]  As a result, none of what's happening now should surprise us, except for one thing:  We finally have a President that sees the problem as it is, and not as the media and ruling classes attempt to present it.  Having had to deal with the EPA, environmentalists and other misfits for many years representing my industry, I knew the bureaucracy was corrupt, and that corruption was created by elected representatives from both parties, especially starting with -- again -- Nixon, who created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and a host of other "green" laws.  All of which have been out of control for years.  All of which are anti-capitalist.  All of which are anti-American.  All of which impose fundamentally unconstitutional regulations.  All of which the nation is struggling with today.

Disney makes disabled guests wait too long for rides, lawsuits allege.  Lawsuits against Walt Disney Co. are moving ahead in California and Florida, challenging how the company allows disabled people to access theme park attractions.  Both lawsuits, filed by the same lead attorney, Tampa-based Andy Dogali, accuse the world's most popular theme park operator of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by making park-goers with autism and other disabilities wait too long to get on a ride.  In court records, Dogali says he has nearly 100 plaintiffs wanting to challenge Disney's policy.

Domino's Pizza legally required to make app and website accessible for blind people.  Domnio's Pizza has been legally required to makes its app and website fully accessible to the visually impaired following a years-long legal battle with a blind customer who was left unable to order a pie with personalized toppings through his iPhone.  Guillermo Robles in a lawsuit filed back in September 2016 first accused the popular pizza chain of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act "for its failure to design, construct, maintain, and operate its website to be fully accessible and independently usable" for those who are blind.

Wheelchair-bound man demands $50K from inaccessible shops.  A Queens man who uses a wheelchair to get around has been demanding $50,000 a pop from dozens of Manhattan businesses — or else he'll sue them over their lack accessibility for the disabled.  Arik Matatov, 24, lives in Rego Park, but that didn't stop him from targeting nearly 50 Manhattan shops — from Christian Dior to a designer bridal salon — over a six-week period last winter.  He huffed it out to each location with a pal, who photographed him outside the establishments, which lacked ramps or elevators, according to his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuits.

The Rapid 'Progress' of Progressivism.  Not long ago I waited for a flight to board.  The plane took off 45 minutes late.  There were only two attendants to accommodate 11 passengers who had requested wheelchair assistance.  Such growing efforts to ensure that the physically challenged can easily fly are certainly welcome.  But when our plane landed — late and in danger of causing many passengers to miss their connecting flights — most of the 11 wheelchair-bound passengers left their seats unassisted and hurried out.  It was almost as if newfound concerns about making connections had somehow improved their health during the flight.  Two passengers had boarded with two dogs each.  No doubt the airlines' policy of allowing an occasional dog on a flight is understandable.  But now planes are starting to sound and smell like kennels.

Democrats Attempted To Block Bill Allowing Wheelchairs On Federal Lands.  Apparently, the disabled rank rather low on the hierarchy of things Democrats care about[.]

GOP Overcomes Dem Resistance To Letting Wheelchairs On Federal Lands.  Democrats tried unsuccessfully Thursday [12/14/2017] to sink a bill that would allow bikes, game carts, strollers and wheelchairs in federally protected wilderness areas.  The legislation, introduced by GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California, was passed through the House Natural Resources Committee during a markup on 15 separate bills.  McClintock's bill originally gave motorized wheelchairs and many non-motorized, wheeled devices full access to wilderness areas, but it was amended to allow area's managing agency to reject or restrict the use of certain devices.  "Public lands should be open to all Americans," GOP Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, chairman of the committee, said in a statement.  "It is shocking to see self-proclaimed defenders of public lands in Congress vote to perpetuate a permanent ban on bikers, parents, the disabled, or certain hunters from accessing public lands."

Court: Movie theaters must accommodate deaf-blind patrons.  An appeals court says federal disability law requires movie theaters to provide interpreters to patrons who are deaf and blind.

Deaf-blind patrons must be able to go to the movies too, court says.  Federal disability law requires movie theaters to provide specialized interpreters to patrons who are deaf and blind, an appeals court said Friday [10/6/2017].

Plano-based Cinemark, other movie theaters must provide interpreters for deaf-blind customers, court rules.  Federal disability law requires Plano-based Cinemark and other movie theaters to provide specialized interpreters to patrons who are deaf and blind, an appeals court said Friday [10/6/2017].  The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Cinemark, the nation's third-largest movie chain, in a case involving a Pennsylvania man who wanted to see the 2014 movie Gone Girl and asked a Cinemark theater in Pittsburgh to supply a "tactile interpreter."  The theater denied his request.  The plaintiff, Paul McGann, is a movie enthusiast who reads American Sign Language through touch.  He uses a method of tactile interpretation that involves placing his hands over the hands of an interpreter who uses sign language to describe the movie's action, dialogue and even the audience response.

Disabled by Government.  A third threat to free speech at University of California, Berkeley has led to more censorship than political rioters or college administrators.  It's the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Berkeley is expensive.  Out of state students must pay $60,000 a year.  But for five years, Berkeley generously posted 20,000 of its professors' lectures online.  Anyone could watch them for free.  Then government regulators stepped in.

These handicapped New Yorkers are behind hundreds of lawsuits.  Five New Yorkers in wheelchairs are behind nearly 400 lawsuits brought against small businesses for lacking handicap access.  Such legal claims have been criticized as part of a "cottage industry" of "serial plaintiffs" who target mom-and-pop establishments for quick cash settlements.  But others see the suits as helping enforce the American with Disabilities Act.  Wheelchair ramps and bathroom doors are not the only battleground.  Two blind New Yorkers have taken the fight online, filing a combined 23 suits against business Web sites that didn't have screen-reading software for the visually impaired.  And a woman cited seven businesses for not allowing her service dog inside.

Related story about an experience in England:
Muslim taxi driver sacked for refusing blind couple and guide dog 'because of religion'.  In a shocking incident captured on mobile phone footage, the Leicester-based taxi driver outright refused to accept Charles Bloch, his girlfriend Jessica Graham and his guide dog Carlo.  The couple, who are both registered blind after being born with visual impairments, were shocked when their booked ADT Taxis driver refused to give them a lift.  Mr Bloch, a student at De Montfort University, said in the video:  "By law you can't deny us.  It's against the Disability Act of 1995."

Transgender Privilege and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  There is a lot behind the Obama administration's diktat to public schools requiring them to treat transgender students in accord with claimed gender identity.  The administration is pandering to radical LGBT activism, attempting to expand federal and especially executive power, continuing the left's ongoing ideological war against American tradition, and cynically manipulating the Democratic base on behalf of Hillary Clinton.  The Administration has preposterously tried to defend its coercive "guidance" to local school districts as analogous to federal enforcement operations during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.  In fact, the rationales and means employed bear a closer resemblance to the use and misuse of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) since its passage in 1990, by disability activist groups and wealthy and influential plaintiffs' lawyers.  It's a case of the regulatory state simply picking and choosing rationales from smorgasbord of "rights" statutes to dictate to the people.

Pets Allowed.  [A]n increasing number of your neighbors have been keeping company with their pets in human-only establishments, cohabiting with them in animal-unfriendly apartment buildings and dormitories, and taking them (free!) onto airplanes — simply by claiming that the creatures are their licensed companion animals and are necessary to their mental well-being.  No government agency keeps track of such figures, but in 2011 the National Service Animal Registry, a commercial enterprise that sells certificates, vests, and badges for helper animals, signed up twenty-four hundred emotional-support animals.  Last year, it registered eleven thousand.

Double amputee continues legal spree by suing Ralph Lauren.  Zoltan Hirsch — a double amputee in a wheelchair dubbed "Hell on Wheels" by The Post in 2011 after he filed 87 federal claims in one year against city businesses, arguing they were not wheelchair-accessible — is continuing his campaign.  Hirsch last month sued Ralph Lauren Denim & Supply at 99 University Place, claiming he suffered injury because, according to papers filed in US District Court, he "continues to be discriminated against due to the architectural barriers."  The Brooklyn resident, who lost his legs in a car accident 10 years ago, previously hit a vast array of businesses ranging from a Brooklyn Dunkin' Donuts to Midtown's Lace strip club, Soho's Louis Vuitton and even a pedicure spa in Soho.

Serial Plaintiff Alfredo Garcia Deported to Mexico.  Alfredo Garcia, a notorious serial plaintiff, convicted felon and undocumented immigrant, has been deported to Mexico.  Garcia made it his business to sue small businesses, filing more than 800 lawsuits against businesses in the Los Angeles area for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Garcia hasn't held a job since he fell out of an avocado tree while he was drinking and high on cocaine about 18 years ago.  Garcia's back was broken, his spinal cord severed.  Since then, he's made a living off these lawsuits.

DOJ moves to require services in movie theaters for the blind and deaf.  The Justice Department moved Friday [7/25/2014] to open up the nation's cinemas to the visually and hearing impaired with a slate of draft regulations requiring movie theaters to offer closed captioning and audio description technology.  "This proposed rule will allow all Americans, including those with disabilities, to fully participate in the moviegoing experience," Attorney General Eric Holder said in unveiling the plan.  The DOJ's bid to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act comes four years after the agency signaled plans to move forward with new regulations, drawing more than 1,000 public comments.

The Editor says...
It is an act of tyranny to make the owners of privately-owned businesses adapt to customers who shouldn't be there.  It makes no sense for a deaf and blind man to go to a movie theater, just as it makes no sense for a paraplegic to go rock climbing, or a blind person to go to a gun range and expect to be treated like everyone else.  If people go places they shouldn't be, the owners of those places should not be penalized.

U.N. Disabilities Treaty a Trojan Horse.  The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, despite its innocent-sounding name, contains a Trojan horse for the pro-life movement.  It is the first treaty that contains a reference to "reproductive health."  This term may sound innocuous, but it is not.  Ever since the U.N. Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, anti-life forces have used the term to try to promote a binding, international legal right to abortion.  They have argued — and continue to argue — that the repetition of these words, in various statements in a variety of contexts around the world, has created a "customary law" right to abortion that, in turn, binds every nation in the world.

Kerry on U.N. Disabilities Treaty: 'No Impact Whatsoever On the Sovereignty of the United States'.  Despite what critics claim could lead to restrictions on parenting and educating special needs children in the United States and global abortion promotion, Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday [11/21/2013] that ratification of the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will have "no impact" on U.S. sovereignty.  "There's no impact whatsoever on the sovereignty of the United States," Kerry said.  "In fact, you all are exercising our sovereignty right now by doing what the framers of the Constitution envisioned, which is ratifying a treaty."

Feds readying movie theater regulations for blind, deaf patrons.  The Obama administration is nearing completion of a proposal to require that movie theaters offer technology so blind and deaf people can go to the cinema.  The draft rule, which is part of a decades-long effort by advocates for people with disabilities, would likely require thousands of movie theaters across the country to offer devices that display closed captioning and provide audio narration of what's happening onscreen.

The Editor says...
It wouldn't bother me if all the movie theaters in the world went out of business tomorrow morning.  But I find this story annoying because it shows that the intrusive nanny state is constantly turning the screws tighter and tighter, making it all but impossible to operate a business, because of the mountain of federal regulations ostensibly designed to help "those less fortunate" among us.  That is a sham, of course.  The underlying motivation for tighter and more intrusive regulations is the destruction of capitalism.

DOJ Using ADA to Get Psychotic Prisoners Out of Solitary.  Prolonged use of solitary confinement for prisoners with serious mental illness and intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional and violates the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division says.  In a "findings" letter issued on Friday, DOJ announced the results of its investigation into the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Cresson in Cambria County, Pa.

EEOC goes to bat for drunken steelworkers; strikes out.  We sometimes hear of the savings that could be realized by eliminating "waste, fraud, and abuse" at federal government agencies.  But substantial savings might also be achieved if only we could eliminate absurdity.  Consider a lawsuit brought by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against United States Steel and the United Steelworkers Union under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).  The suit challenges a practice, approved by the Union, of alcohol testing of probationary employees. EEOC alleged that the practice violated a provision of the ADA that prohibits medical testing that is not "job related and consistent with business necessity."

Complete Streets Occupiers.  If you've not heard of the "Complete Streets" movement, count yourself lucky.  You've managed to avoid the acrimonious Bike Lane Wars.  And don't ask about them at social events.  "Bike lanes, I put that now in the category of things you shouldn't discuss at dinner parties," a New York City Councilor tells us.  "It used to be money and politics and religion.  Now you should add bike lane."  So what are "Complete Streets"?  According to the National Complete Streets Coalition, these are streets that accommodate "all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities."

US Airways fined $1.2M for inadequate wheelchair access.  The Department of Transportation has fined U.S. Airways $1.2 million for not providing adequate wheelchair access for disabled passengers.  The agency said the airline was in violation of the Air Carrier Access Act during two instances at Philadelphia International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2011 and 2012.  Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the fine was one of the largest penalties in a disability case.

Feds try to eliminate housing for the deaf — at complex built for hearing-impaired.  A 2005 federal study found that the U.S. had virtually no affordable housing for the deaf.  So the federal government helped build Apache ASL Trails, a 75-unit apartment building in Tempe, Ariz., designed specifically for the deaf.  Ninety-percent of the units are currently occupied by deaf and deaf-blind seniors.  But now, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development says Apache ASL Trails violates civil rights law — because it shows a preference for the hearing-impaired.

Gov't: Food allergies may be disability under law.  The Justice Department said in a recent settlement with a Massachusetts college that severe food allergies can be considered a disability under the law.

The Special Olympics — every day, at every school.
Schools must provide sports for disabled, US says.  Students with disabilities must be given a fair shot to play on a traditional sports team or have their own leagues, the Education Department says.

White House: Schools must open sports to disabled.  The Obama administration for the first time is telling school districts across the USA that they must give disabled students equal access to extracurricular sports, a move that advocates say has been years in the making.  In a letter to schools due out Friday [1/25/2013], Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Seth Galanter of the Department of Education says schools should provide "reasonable modifications" to allow disabled students to participate — for instance, providing a deaf track athlete with a flashing light that goes off simultaneously with the starter pistol that others hear.

Obama Seeks 2nd Chance For UN Disabilities Pact.  The Obama administration is pushing for ratification of a U.N. accord on the rights of the disabled less than a year after Senate Republicans rejected pleas for its passage from two former GOP presidential nominees and delivered a stinging rebuke to a global treaty modeled largely on American law.

After homeschoolers lobby, UN disabilities treaty fails.  A United Nations human rights treaty that drew broad ire from conservative groups was rejected by a slender margin on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon [12/4/2012].  The vote was 61 for to 31 against, six "aye" votes shy of the two-thirds majority necessary to pass a treaty.  The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ostensibly would have expanded access and opportunity for the disabled.  But opponents, particularly those in homeschooling and faith-based organizations, argued that it redefined parental rights more narrowly while impinging on U.S. sovereignty.

U.N. Disabilities Treaty Would Limit U.S. Sovereignty.  Those who thought that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) adequately guaranteed the rights of the handicapped to have access to all facets of American life were apparently wrong.  The U.S. Senate is considering ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which President Obama signed in 2009 and which goes well beyond mandating wheel-chair ramps for public buildings.  CRPD doesn't even bother to adequately define what disabilities it covers but rather merely says the definition is "evolving," a loaded term that rivals in its potential expansiveness the phrase "the Secretary shall determine" that is repeatedly found in the Affordable Care Act.

Disabilities Treaty Will Not Help Americans with Disabilities.  Earlier today [11/26/2012], Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced his intention to proceed to executive session tomorrow to consider the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international treaty purporting to protect the rights of the disabled that the Obama Administration signed in July 2009.  However, U.S. membership in CRPD would not advance U.S. national interests either at home or abroad.

A Short History of Justin Dart, Jr., "Father" of the ADA.  Justin Dart, Jr., who is widely thought of as the "father" of the ADA, was born in 1930 to a very wealthy, prominent family.  Growing up, Justin was very misbehaved, attending seven high schools, but never graduating.  He later described himself as a "super-loser," admitting that he didn't like himself.  In 1948 Justin contracted polio and was given three days to live.  It was at this point in his life that Justin changed directions.  Justin felt loved and was given affection by those around him and liked the feeling.  In turn, he began to treat people with respect and love.  Although polio turned Justin into a wheelchair user, it did not kill him.  He went on to receive his bachelors and masters degrees, then began to work in business.  In Japan, Justin was the president of Tupperware Japan, where he hired women and people with disabilities to empower them.  Justin was interested in more than money — he wanted to create social change.

Justin Dart, Jr.: American activist.  Dart was born into a prominent family; his grandfather Charles R. Walgreen established the Walgreens drugstore chain.  At age 18 Dart contracted polio, and the illness left him confined to a wheelchair.  After graduating (1954) from the University of Houston, Dart briefly studied law at the University of Texas before undertaking several business ventures.  During that time he also became active in the disability rights movement.  In 1981 U.S. Pres.  Ronald Reagan appointed him vice-chairman of the National Council on Disability.  Dart and other council members drafted a national policy on equal rights for disabled people, and the document ultimately became the foundation of the ADA. In 1986 Dart became head of the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration, but he was forced to resign the following year after he criticized the department during a congressional hearing.  After the ADA was signed into law on July 26, 1990, Dart promoted the legislation and fought later efforts to amend it.