Coming Soon

Does the ADA have rules about small businesses and customers?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) seeks to secure equal access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities to be a part of the community. This includes the right for people with disabilities to have equal access to goods and services from businesses and nonprofits that are open to the public. The ADA refers to these businesses and nonprofits as public accommodations.

What is a public accommodation?

Under Title III of the ADA, a public accommodation is a business or nonprofit that owns, operates, leases, or leases to, a place that is open to the public where commerce takes place. These include bars and restaurants, hotels, theaters, dentist and doctor offices, pharmacies and retail stores, museums and libraries, gyms and spas, and private schools and day-care centers. The law defines twelve extremely broad different categories. Unlike in Title I of the ADA, the number of employees working at a public accommodation plays no part in determining whether it is covered by Title III.

Note that a religious organization or private club is exempt from the ADA’s Title III requirements for public accommodations. However, it still might be subject to other ADA requirements, such as the Title I employment provisions.

For more information, see Public Places Overview and The ADA and Public Places, both on the Northeast ADA Center website.

The foundation of Title III

Title III of the ADA prohibits a business from discriminating against a person with a disability because of their disability. Title III includes several broad principles, or ideas, that support and clarify what it means to not discriminate. Title III tells us that a person with a disability should:

• • Have an equal opportunity to participate in a business’s goods or services in the most integrated setting that is appropriate
• Have an equal opportunity to benefit from a business’s goods or services

Title III includes several broad principles, or ideas, that support and clarify what it means to not discriminate. These principles are:

• Participating in an integrated setting: An equal opportunity to participate means that a person with a disability cannot be excluded simply due to their disability. For example, Rick has an intellectual disability. A local theater cannot refuse to admit him because he has this disability.
• Benefiting from a business’s good or services: The requirement to have an equal opportunity to benefit from a business’s goods and services does not necessarily mean that a person with a disability will get the same result as a person without a disability. For example, Donna uses a wheelchair for mobility due to a neuromuscular disability. She belongs to a gym where she wants to take a strength training class. The gym cannot refuse to let Donna participate based on a concern that she may not be able to do all the exercises involved.
• Alternative benefits: A business can offer an alternative benefit to participate in, but it cannot require a person with a disability to use it. For example, a historical home that was converted into a museum generally does not allow visitors to touch the home’s furniture in order to preserve it. The museum does provide a special tour for individuals who are blind or low-vision, and that tour does allow touching the furniture. However, the museum cannot require a blind individual to take that tour if they wish to take the regular tour instead.

The importance of flexibility

Following these ideas requires flexible thinking and response. While some disabilities are more obvious, such as a person using a wheelchair for mobility, other disabilities are not so obvious, such as someone with a traumatic brain injury. Generally, a business cannot ask a person if they have a disability. Therefore, you may not know whether someone has a disability. When in doubt, it is good to offer responsive customer service for unexpected requests whenever it is reasonable.

General Title III requirements

Under Title III, businesses have a responsibility to ensure that their buildings and goods are accessible (physically, programmatically, technologically, etc.). People with different disabilities have different needs to consider when designing buildings and facilities or when offering equal access to goods and services.

Architectural accessibility and readily achievable barrier removal are key requirements for physical access. This is true whether your business is in a brand new building or in a facility from 1955. There should be an accessible path of travel to an accessible entrance, an accessible route throughout the business and its services, and other accessible features (such as bathrooms) that are open to the public.

There are specific standards, depending on the building date:

• After March 15, 2012, new construction or alterations should meet the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (see Tool 5: New Construction).
• If a facility was built on or after January 26, 1993, but before March 15, 2012, it must comply with the requirements of the 1991 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (see Tool 4: Physical Access).
• Buildings constructed before January 26, 1993, are covered by the ADA, but the concept of readily achievable barrier removal applies (see Tool 6: Barrier Removal).

Effective communication

Businesses must ensure effective communication. Effective communication means that communication must be as clear and understandable for a person with a disability as for someone without a disability.

Examples of communication-related disabilities are those that effect hearing, seeing, or speech. Examples of communication include face-to-face, printed materials, websites and electronic communication, videos, and emergency communications.

To provide effective communication, a business may need to offer an auxiliary aid or service. An auxiliary aid or serviceis a device or service that can facilitate communication for an individual with a disability, such as a sign language interpreter, captioning, braille or large print materials, and accessible websites (see Tool 7: Communicating Effectively with Customers).

Reasonable modification

Title III calls for businesses to make reasonable modifications to policies, practices, and procedures to allow people with disabilities to participate, unless a fundamental alteration in a program would result in a fundamental alteration or it would cause an undue burden.

A fundamental alteration is a change that is so significant that it alters the essential nature of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations offered. An example of a fundamental alteration would be a clothing store salesperson helping a customer with a disability get dressed if the store does not offer that assistance to others without a disability.

An undue burden means significant difficulty or expense. For example, a small private museum with a shoestring budget might not be able to provide an sign language interpreter on short notice, but rather must rely on a transcript of a guided tour.

Reasonable modifications, however, mean that a business has to adapt a policy to enable equal access for a person with a disability. A reasonable modification that many people are familiar with is when a business permits service animals even though it has a no-pets policy (see the first Situation Room example in this tool).