Radio Shack just settled a lawsuit that their "interactive electronic" displays were not wheel chair accessible.

If i were in a wheelchair for life, I would want to do stuff, but I sure as hell wouldn't start sueing everyone because I couldn't do something. Why would I want to make Radio Shack spend a pile of $$$ so 2 wheelchair customers a month can use an interactive display?

I am not putting down wheelchair users.... i always hold the doors open, etc..... to help make their day a little easier....but.......

Do people in wheelchairs feel that they should be able to do EVERYTHING that a non wheelchair person can do?

Is that fair in your opinion? Should businesses have to spend pile of $$$ so just a few customers can enjoy the store a tiny bit more?

Are there rules like this in other countries?

 

I've got a limited understanding of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Mostly because of how it applies to govenment. All public buildings have to have equal accessability to everyone. For example, our state historical society was gifted this huge mansion from a rich dude that had a family theater in the attic. Stage, lighting, curtains, seating, the whole works. Its really neat but only a narrow stairway leads to the attic and to build an elevator on the outside of the building would ruiin the character and cost over a million so they can not show the theater to the public. (I toured it for work) They can only show parts of the building that are open to everyone. If the people in the wheelchair can't see it, then the law says everbody is screwed.

I don't think this applies to private businesses. They can cater to customers how they want in this regard because retrofitting every existing building would put a hardship on businesses. Businesses do have to make "resonable" accomodations to employees under the law meaning they have to try to make everything needed to do a job accessible to all employees, unless the cost is outrageous. I would be curious to see if the suit was brought by customers or employees of Radio Shack who said they needed to be able to demonstrate the displays.

But I have not dealt with ADA stuff for a few years.......

 

if you were in a wheelchair (Heaven forbid), wouldn't you want to be able to go anywhere you wanted to?

You sound like they're not human or a lower caste or something....

 

I think its an insult, people with disabilities shouldn't be treated any different thatn anyone else. To think that just because someone is blind in a wheelchair etc means they can't figure a way to make it to the front door or prop themselves up to see something or climb stairs without a wheelchair is insulting.

 

i didn't want to sound insulting...... but I have always been of the mindset that I don't like to put other people out.

if I knew it would cost someone $10,000 to retrofit a store so I (ME) could go in and play some video game....i would tell them not to bother...i can do without.

 

I like the braille on the drive up ATM's

 

I would like to, but i would know the limitations....i wouldn't go suing the ice skating rinks because they don't have blades for my wheelchair.???? Seems like things are headed that way...?

I think most reasonable efforts have been made for handicapped people. Grocery stores, malls, etc... are easily accessible as are bathrooms in those places....

To have cruiselines retrofit ships that would cost millions of $$$ to make it easier for a handfull of wheelchair users doesn't make sense to me.

 

My understanding is that the ADA had provisions for already-existing facilities. It's the new stuff that needs to be compliant. If Radio Shack built something last year that wasn't accessable, then it was done against the law and they should have known better.

Is the law a good thing? Hell yeah. If I'm ever involved in a car accident for example and can only move around in a wheel chair, I'd be totally pissed if I couldn't, say, use a bathroom at a restaurant or theater, or take a shower in a hotel.

 

 

If you were a complete invalid you couldn't do any of those things even with the ADA you'd need a traveling companion. Its not the worlds fault you got "screwed" there are plenty of handicaped peaopl that can kick our asses and they don't need or want a front row parking spot. Why because they have BALLS to handle what happened to them. I'm not saying we shouldn't attempt to make life easier but lets be reasonable here. The bathroom yes. Two or three relatively close parking spots okay. Video game displays? WTF.