While reading the latest ADA case reports this arresting statement caught my eye:
“The [ADA] does not ordinarily require the owner of a facility to take affirmative measures to make the facility accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities.”
Davis v. John S. Ciborowski Family Trust, 2013 WL 1410007 (D.N.H. 2013). The statement notes that “in certain circumstances” barrier removal is required, but still seems to stand the common understanding of barrier removal on its head. I think I can fairly say that most of the ADA bar, whether representing plaintiffs or defendants, assumes that barrier removal is required in all circumstances, and is the rule rather than the exception. However, when a federal district judge says something, it is usually worth thinking about, so I went back to the statute to see whether spending too much time on the specifics of what constitute barriers and what is reasonable in their removal might be tempered by looking back at the big picture. More