[nfbmi-talk] Fw: Article: Hotel pool controversy sparks hotel boycott

[joe harcz Comcast]

Ah our pals at the Redisson who don't have raised character and Braille signage on three floors....

Hmm gues the parent company is an equal opportunity offendor...


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Robin Jones 
To: GREATLAKES at LISTSERV.UIC.EDU 
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 5:03 PM
Subject: Article: Hotel pool controversy sparks hotel boycott


The following information is forwarded to you by the Great Lakes ADA Center (www.adagreatlakes.org) for your information:

 

USA Today

July 18, 2012

 

Hotel pool controversy sparks hotel boycott

By:  Barbara De Lollis

The continuing controversy over hotel pool wheelchair lifts today will escalate into a targeted boycott of hotels across the USA.

A national coalition of disability rights groups today will officially kick off a two-tier campaign against hotels.

On one level, they will call for supporters to boycott all hotels in the USA that lack a fixed wheelchair lift - the kind of lift that would allow wheelchair users to easily get into a hotel pool without assistance.

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), with 100,000 members, is one of the groups that have scheduled a call this morning to convey that message. The other boycott organizers are the National Disability Rights Network, the National Council on Independent Living and ADAPT.

Additionally, the organizers will ask supporters in nearly every state to steer conventions, meetings and leisure travel away from specific hotels whose leaders, they say, have participated in efforts to delay regulations.

"You have a lot of big hotel chains hiding behind the trade group associations saying on one hand they want to work to support people with disabilities, and on the other hand, they're actively working against equality," says AAPD CEO Mark Perriello.

There are about 3.3 million people in the USA who use wheelchairs, according to the coalition.

One example of a specifically targeted hotel company is Carlson Rezidor, which operates brands such as Radisson Hotels, Country Inn & Suites Nationwide. A call to the company was not immediately returned.

The controversy began earlier this year.

The hotel industry's most influential lobby group - the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) - began lobbying members of Congress to delay a new rule requiring hotels to make pools more accessible by installing a wheelchair lift.

The AHLA says what sparked their action was the unexpected tweaking of the wheelchair lift rule by the Department of Justice that required hotels to install permanent wheelchair lifts as opposed to portable lifts just a few months before the March 15, 2012 compliance deadline to install lifts. Hoteliers around the USA became nervous that they couldn't meet the requirements and would be targets of a lawsuit. After a lobbying effort, the federal government pushed the wheelchair-lift deadline to Jan. 31, 2013 - a move that some disability rights leaders saw as undermining the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Currently, most hotel pools around the USA do not have fixed wheelchair lifts. Some hotels have portable lifts - and many have nothing at all.

Curt Decker, leader of the National Disability Rights Network, praises some hotels such as the Marriott Baltimore Waterfront, which is located near Johns Hopkins hospital. He's held conferences there.

"We will go there because we know they are really making the effort," he says. "They go the extra mile in the same way you do on food and flowers."

According to the coalition, they'll also ask supporters to ask questions before booking a room - and then make booking decisions based on their answer. The questions they'll ask: "Do you have a pool? Do you have a fixed pool lift?"

They also are going to reach out to meeting planners, travel agencies and websites such as Orbitz and Travelocity to encourage them not to book conferences and business meetings at hotels that don't have fixed wheelchair lifts.

Hotel industry responds

"I think it's an unfortunate move," says Eric Reller, a lobbyist with the hotel industry's AHLA, says of the boycott effort.

"We've never advocated taking anything away from the ADA. We still advocate for access to pools. We're fully compliant with hundreds of new ADA regulations," he says.

They view this as a "fundraising and membership drive," he says.

The rule in question is part of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which President George H.W. Bush signed into law in July 1990. The wheelchair lift requirements, however, were a more recent addition.

The coalition plans to create a website that tells supporters specifically which hotels to avoid. Perriello says the site will include "a wall of shame." The site is not yet live.

Source:  http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2012/07/us-disability-rights-groups-call-for-hotel-boycott/805883/1