It has evolved over the years, from Black patrons trying to enter a “whites only” waiting room, to women applying for typically male jobs, to families applying to “singles only” housing. She is what many call a civil rights “tester.” Being a tester in civil rights cases is an honored and necessary role. Now, the issue before the Supreme Court is whether Laufer can sue Acheson even though she has not visited their hotels and is not likely to. Deborah Laufer, a person with disabilities, sued Acheson Hotels, LLC for failing to make clear whether the hotel was accessible on their website as required by the ADA. Laufer illustrates how hotels often fail travelers with disabilities, and offers an opportunity to solidify our right to hold hotels and other public accommodations accountable for these failures. The upcoming Supreme Court case Acheson Hotels v. This problem often occurs because hotels will assign non-disabled patrons to their very limited number of accessible rooms to maximize profits - at the expense of disabled patrons’ access. When pressed, it became apparent that it was the only accessible room available in the hotel, leaving me no choice but to wait. Twice in the last year, I have arrived at a hotel only to be told that, despite having paid for early check-in, I would have to wait several hours in the lobby for the room’s current resident to depart. The law only requires hotels to make a small percentage of their rooms accessible, compounding the problems disabled travelers face. Unreliable accessibility makes it challenging or impossible for people with disabilities to travel independently we simply do not know what lies on the other side of the door, forcing us to plan ahead and rely on others in anticipation of barriers. When we have to ask the hotel to remove some of this furniture, it can result in the removal of the very amenities we paid for - a desk to work remotely, for example. Furniture regularly crowds hotel rooms in a way that leaves little room to maneuver a wheelchair, scooter, or walker. My friend Alex, who also uses a wheelchair, shared that she must rely on her husband every time she travels to fill in gaps in hotel accessibility, from assistance transferring to navigating the room itself. Even in “accessible” rooms, beds may be too high for people to transfer out of their wheelchairs safely, leaving some travelers to sleep in their wheelchairs. On three of five recent trips, Michelle has found herself assigned to an inaccessible room despite booking an accessible one. My friend Michelle, who uses a wheelchair, can’t shower at all in these situations. Hotels ought to have shower chairs available in these scenarios frequently, they do not, leaving me no choice but to lay or sit on the floor of a shower to clean myself. On three of my recent trips, I found that the shower in my room did not have a bench to transfer onto. This “too little, too late” approach applies across the board with hotel accommodations. This overlooks the point of accessibility, effectively making the room useless to many disabled travelers. Hotels often take a kitchen sink approach to accessibility, throwing in a visual accommodation here and a mobility accommodation there, but failing to provide full accessibility to either group. While not necessary for me, having a visual or tactile fire alarm in their room could be the difference between life and death in an emergency for someone with an auditory disability. At times, I will arrive to find my room is accessible for someone with an auditory disability, but not for a mobility disability like mine. Hotels rarely identify what types of accommodations are available in their “accessible” rooms.
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