Today, the Justice Department filed a Statement of Interest in a lawsuit in the Western District of Pennsylvania to clarify that where an alleged barrier—the height of a hotel bed—is not addressed by the ADA Standards, the ADA’s general nondiscrimination provisions still apply, including making reasonable modifications where necessary to provide goods and services to people with disabilities. The lawsuit, Migyanko v. Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC, alleges that the world’s largest third-party operator of hotels provides hotel beds that are too high for individuals who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices to transfer into them. The lawsuit is in progress but the Department of Justice has received so many comments on this issue they decided to file this clarifying statement with the court. Here is a short excerpt:
Guests cannot fully or equally use a hotel room if they cannot get onto the bed. Where an individual with a disability is unable to transfer from a wheelchair onto the hotel bed, the hotel may need to make reasonable modifications to accommodate the guest. 42 U.S.C. § 12182(b)(2)(A)(ii); 28 C.F.R. § 36.302(a).6 Of course, in the absence of specific requirements for bed height, hotels have some degree of flexibility in making reasonable modifications to provide usable beds for a person with a disability. This flexible standard is inherently fact-specific. For example, some hotels might be able to use a combination of lower profile mattresses, box springs, and bed frames to lower the beds permanently in some of their rooms. Or, some hotels could perhaps provide lower beds upon request in a room by using rollaway beds, removable bed frames, adjustable height bed frames, or bed frames on removable risers. Such flexibility could allow hotels to continue to use higher beds for guests that prefer them, if they so choose.
To see (download and print) the full statement: click here for DOJ Bed Statement
For more information on the ADA or this Statement of Interest, please visit ADA.gov or call the toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TTY 800-514-0383).