Stop Attacks on the Americans with Disabilities Act! Send a message to the Hotel and Lodging Association!!! July 2012

The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted 22 years ago to end discrimination against people with disabilities. By fighting against the installation of pool lifts, you are discriminating against people with disabilities! The proposed rules were released in 2010 and were supposed to go into effect on March 15, 2012. This gave the hotel industry TWO YEARS to install pool lifts to make pools accessible to everyone.

Stop Attacks on the Americans with Disabilities Act!
Tell the hotel associations to stop trying to weaken the ADA!

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a proposed rule that would require hotels with pools and other pools open to the public to provide lifts or sloped entries to make the pools accessible to people who use wheelchairs or have other mobility disabilities. The rule was set to go into effect on March 15, 2012, giving these pool owners two years to install pool lifts. Instead of urging their members to comply with the rules and provide access, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) launched a campaign to overturn the access requirement and weaken the ADA.

The hotel industry has used many excuses to avoid installing pool lifts, including:

* Installing pool lifts are too expensive;
* Fixed pool lifts are unsafe for other guests and their children;
* People with disabilities don’t go to hotels; and
* People with disabilities will make pools unsanitary.

They said actually we’d poop in their pools! Seriously.
The Disability Community has attempted to work with these hotel associations to resolve this issue, but the hotel associations have made it clear that they will keep fighting the requirement to install fixed pool lifts.

This attack on the ADA isn’t just an assault on our right to access pools. It lays the groundwork for other groups to seek exemptions from making their programs, services and facilities accessible. This is an attack on the entire Disability Community. Ultimately, we could not just lose our access rights, but other rights under the ADA, including our right to live in the most integrated setting as affirmed by the Olmstead decision.

TAKE ACTION NOW so that the hotel industry, including the AH&LA and the AAHOA, understands we won’t let them continue to discriminate against people with disabilities and will not let them weaken our civil rights protections!

Click Headline to send a message to the hotel associations or visit:
http://capwiz.com/rochestercdr/issues/alert/?alertid=61572131

We would like to thank and acknowledge the 'Center for Disabilities Right' for there leadership in protecting our Americans with Disabilities Act!!!
http://www.cdrnys.org/