{"id":169,"date":"2012-09-24T16:02:58","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T21:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accessdefense.wordpress.com\/?p=169"},"modified":"2012-09-24T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T21:02:58","slug":"can-everyone-buy-what-youre-selling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accessdefense.com\/?p=169","title":{"rendered":"Are you experienced?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image\"<\/a>In her song \u201cRaised on Robbery\u201d Jonie Mitchell describes a man \u201csitting in the bar of the Empire Hotel, drinking for diversion and thinking for himself\u201d while he watches a hockey game that he\u2019s bet on. I thought about that song when I ate lunch with a wheel chair bound at a local restaurant. We had no trouble being seated; there were plenty of accessible tables. What we couldn\u2019t do was see the three large flat screen TVs behind the bar because the bar area only had raised tables and raised booths.<\/p>\n

Does the inability to sit in the bar or see a TV amount to discrimination against those with disabilities? It depends on how you look at the business of the restaurant. If the restaurant is only selling food and drink then a person with a mobility disability gets the same thing everyone else does \u2013 food and drink.\u00a0 But if the restaurant is the experience of drinking and watching a hockey game the disabled person is out of luck.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty clear that the chance to drink and watch sports on TV is an important part of what this particular restaurant sells. The bar area takes up more than a third of the restaurant, and when we visited there were more patrons at the bar than seated at tables. It\u2019s a safe bet the owner wouldn\u2019t have spent the money to install the TVs if he didn\u2019t think they were a draw. The atmosphere of the bar was different from the atmosphere of the restaurant as well. It was louder and there was a higher level of conviviality. In the Jonie Mitchell song the man drinking alone is accosted by a \u201cwoman in lacey sleeves.\u201d I could imagine it happening in the bar of this restaurant, but not in the restaurant seating area.<\/p>\n

The ADA Guidelines do address the idea that not all tables are equal by requiring that accessible seating be distributed \u201cthroughout the space\u201d of a restaurant or bar, but spreading the accessible seating around may not solve the problem. If there are accessible tables in the bar but they didn\u2019t allow a patron to watch TV the wheelchair bound patron still can\u2019t have the same experience as those who can sit or stand anywhere.<\/p>\n

When trying to make sure a facility does not discriminate against disabled patrons an owner has to go beyond the purely technical requirements in the Standards and Guidelines and look at whether a disabled person is able to enjoy the experience that is for sale, or at least as much of that as the disability permits. \u00a0That isn\u2019t a new legal principle, but the Chipotle<\/em> case I discussed in Burrito Tale is a good reminder of it. Chipotle got in trouble with a serving line too high for a person in a wheel chair because it wasn\u2019t just selling burritos; it was selling the \u201cChipotle experience\u201d of watching the burrito be prepared. Owners of any facility subject to the ADA should ask themselves what experience they want their patrons to have, and then whether those with disabilities can share that experience. If not, there may be an ADA violation.<\/p>\n