A post the other day about Bistro New Albany got me to thinking about the strange mess that has always existed between the requirements for access under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and those helpful guys and gals in local "code enforcement" offices. Here in Louisville that's xxx
This could be long and detailed, but I'll make it short and simple, fudging over a little bit of stuff but giving you the essential low-down:
Physical access is a bricks-and-mortar thing that belongs in the world of construction and renovation. Thus, those overseeing that kind of thing are the ones who would logically tell owners/contractors about design requirements that ensure wheelchair access.
The way IPL and their cohorts nationwide see things, they're enforcing codes -- i.e. building codes.
If the code in use (there are state codes and local codes) require a design feature, they'll ensure it's done (ensuring it's "up to code.")
However:
The federal Disabilities Act is a different kind of beast -- it's not a building code at all. It's a civil rights, anti-discrimination law.
So we have apples and oranges, or maybe convertibles and SUVs, passing each other in the night, ignoring each other.
Yet the ADA requires access. That requirement is on the operator of the establishment.
The ADA says nothing to code enforcement officials. It's not their law to administer.
And so they don't administer it.
So we have a business owner opening their business in an inaccessible building. The code officials don't say anything to them about the lack of access. If the owner's not doing any kind of renovation, they don't even have any contact with code officials, unless they're a restaurant, and then the officials check things like the number of sinks, the number of tables for the space, etc., etc. -- all that restaurant-y stuff. But not construction stuff, and therefore, not access.
The code officials don't have to do a thing about access unless the building is actually being renovated -- walls removed, new fronts put on, that kind of thing.
Meanwhile, though, there is this federal law, that tells the business owner, "no; you can't open your new business in an inaccessible building." But, you see, that's a nondiscrimination requirement -- not a code requirement. So the code folks who are dealing with the business getting opened, don't say a word about access.
Nobody, it seems, ever tells the business owner about the ADA's requirement for access. They don't learn about it until a wheelchair user (or a group like MetroSweep) tells them.
Or so they say. You'd sort of think that by now, almost 20 years after that became a federal law, that most business owners would've caught on.
But maybe not. At least most of them insist they were "never told" they had to be accessible. Which is why they seem to feel so aggrieved when a wheelchair user dares to tell them.
And all this is the short expanation. You don't want to read the long explanation.
