April 2025
Volume 18 Issue 6
Exhibition Design and Accessibility for Visitors with Disabilities (Recording Available)
Free Map Accessibility Evaluation Tool from XR Navigation
This is a tool to help you quickly evaluate a web-based map for some of the most common accessibility issues under the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). For more information, check out our recent Accessible Technology Webinar with XR Navigation Can you Read this Map: Checking Maps for ADA Accessibility
K-12 Digital Infrastructure Brief on Accessibility
This brief provides information and examples for K-12 Educators and Administrators working to comply with the new ADA Title II digital standard for web content and mobile apps. This resource discusses creating a digital infrastructure, accessible education materials, assistive technology and more!
Free Course: Autism-Informed Employers
The University of Kentucky Human Development Institute is allowing anyone to access their Innovative Supports for Autistic Workers (ISAW) training. Learn how to effectively interview, supervise, and retain employees on the autism spectrum. Businesses will benefit through lower turnover, increased productivity, and the addition of unique perspectives and talents to help your team excel.
Gatorade and Move United Provide Adapted High School Sport Guides
Move United offers resources to integrate adapted athletes into existing high school athletic programs without altering rules for athletes without disabilities or imposing administrative challenges on State High School Associations. Check out their guides on Swimming, Track and Field, Wheelchair Tennis and Boccia with more to come!
Answer: Even though accessible seats are referred to as “wheelchair spaces” under the 2010 ADA Standards, a person does not need to be a wheelchair user or have a mobility disability to purchase a ticket for an accessible seat. People with disabilities that require the features of accessible seating can also purchase those tickets. For example, a person with a service animal may purchase a ticket for accessible seating if they require additional space for their animal.
Tickets may be sold to individuals who need accessible seating for themselves or to someone purchasing on their behalf.
Generally, tickets for accessible seats may not be sold to people who do not need the specific features of the accessible seats. However, unsold accessible seats may be released and sold to the general public in three specific circumstances:
In addition, if a venue or event permits patrons to transfer or sell their tickets to others, these same rights must be extended to patrons with disabilities who hold tickets for accessible seating. The ticket seller cannot require that accessible seats only be transferred to someone with a disability.
Resource(s):
Learn more by visiting our ADA Frequently Asked Questions.
EEOC v. Black Diamond Blade Company
Black Diamond Blade Company (doing business as Cutting Edge Supply) will pay $150,000 to a former welder and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. According to the suit, the company failed to accommodate a welder with diabetes who requested an accommodation to take snack breaks periodically throughout the workday to regulate his blood sugar. The employer also allegedly retaliated against the employee when he complained about the discrimination. Eventually, the employee was fired.
EEOC v. Reliable Maintenance Solutions, Inc.
Reliable will pay $25,000 and undertake remedial measures to settle a disability discrimination complaint. EEOC charged that Reliable refused to hire an experienced applicant for a heavy equipment operation position because of his disability. The applicant is a right-arm amputee with years of work experience operating dump trucks, and he was working as a dump truck operator at the time of his application to Reliable. Although the applicant then successfully completed safety training, the lawsuit alleged that Reliable claimed at least one of its clients was uncomfortable with an amputee being employed as a heavy equipment operator, and so the applicant was not hired.
EEOC v. Reliable Maintenance Solutions, Inc.
CPG Staffing and Executive Personnel agreed to pay $60,000 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit alleging that they rescinded a welding applicant’s job offer after learning from a post-offer medical questionnaire that he had injured his knee on a job two years earlier. Before disclosing the prior injury, from which he had completely recovered, the applicant successfully passed a welding test. The applicant indicated he could perform the essential duties of the welder job, did not require a reasonable accommodation, and provided a letter from his physician clearing him to work.
American Council of the Blind of Metropolitan Chicago vs. City of Chicago
Under the Court's proposed order, Chicago has 10 years to equip at least 71% of its signalized intersections with Accessible Pedestrian Signals (“APS”). Chicago will then have another 5 years to install APS at 100% of its signalized intersections. The Court also calls for the City to establish an APS Citizen Advisory Committee.
Ellerbee v. State of Louisiana
A blind resident sued the State of Louisiana because he could not use several of the state’s websites. The state asked the court to throw the case out of court, arguing that the ADA Title II regulation deadlines for state and local governments to make their websites and mobile apps accessible have not yet passed. The judge disagreed and said the case could move forward because the ADA still requires nondiscrimination and access to government information on the web, even before the new regulations go into effect.
Department of Education v. DC Public Schools
The U.S. Department of Education recently sent a letter to Chancellor Lewis Ferebee of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) initiating an investigation to evaluate if the district is failing to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The federal probe follows a December report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which found that D.C. has one of the highest rates of due process complaints among all other states and territories.
Frost v. Lion Brand Yarn Company
Courts around the country are split on the issue of whether a “place of public accommodation” under Title III of the ADA must have a physical location where it serves the public in order to be covered. A federal trial court in Minnesota, recently denied a web-only business’s motion to dismiss, ruling that web-only businesses are covered by Title III, siding with the courts that have concluded that no physical location is required.
