Why would a big business act small?

American with disabilities act does it orce small business to comply?

• I run a small rental motel in southern California. Recently, on the news there is a handicap man going to small business and suing them for not having handicap facilities. (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lawsuits-20100918,0,3253698.story) Now we are a small motel built in 1943. Do we have to get handicap facilities? I don’t have a problem getting the facilities it just I don’t have the money for it. My business is not running to well, and I don’t know if I can get another loan for 100k in reinventions to make these changes. I heard the older built buildings may not have to comply with this law. Is this true? What does the law say for this type of scenario? Site I have researched: http://www.calchamber.com/headlines/pages/sb1608disabilityaccesslawreformhowdoesithelpbusinessowners.aspx http://www.ada.gov/

• Answer:

  The ADA act requires that you make "reasonable accommodation" for people with disabilities. On the one hand, it does not require you to tear out all your rooms and equip them with handicap facilities. It doesn't require you to do excessive amounts of work relative to your resources. On the other hand, the fact that your motel is old doesn't count for much. If you do any remodeling, you would be wise to take accessibility into account, at least for a couple of your rooms. Reasonable accommodation means just that: you have to do what is reasonable. You cannot ignore handicapped patrons, but you do not have to go to extreme lengths to make changes. If you remodeled even one room, to make the door wide enough for a wheel chair, and to make the bathroom wheelchair accessible, I doubt that this would cost anything like $100K. But it would buy you a lot grief-avoidance. If anyone tried to complain, you would have an excellent argument that, given your size and the costs involved, you had made reasonable accommodation. If you are a small motel, it is inconceivable that a court (even a California court!) would find otherwise. But if even one room is too much, then you should talk with a lawyer about what constitutes reasonableness in your situation. I hope this helps.