A little over 20 years ago, the US Department of Justice changed the rules for Titles II and III of the ADA. The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design are a list of these rules.

The ADA is a human rights law that ensures people with limitations have the same access and opportunities as everyone else. 26% of American people have some kind of limitation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common problem for these people with disabilities is that they can’t move around. In truth, the National Institutes of Health said that 2.7 million people needed to use wheelchairs in 2015.

Title III of the ADA is for places open to the public or used for business. In this part of the ADA, places like music halls and bars are put into two groups: places where people can see shows or enjoy entertainment and places where people can get together. Everyone is in the public, and music is a form of pleasure. In 2010, the rules were changed to ensure that people with disabilities could get fair help. This included rules for accessible seats and getting around in a wheelchair.

Accessibility Isn’t Just for the Event

Regarding accessibility, seats and other physical accommodations are important, but you also can’t forget about digital accessibility. How are disabled people going to buy tickets if they can’t read the website or mobile app?

The DOJ has decided that websites and other digital products are all covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act. Not ensuring people with disabilities can reach them can hurt ticket sales and lead to expensive claims.

The best way to meet this standard is to have a usability expert check out your digital assets. This will show where changes need to be made. You can also have an accessibility expert write up a VPAT, which stands for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. 

You might ask, “What is a VPAT?” A VPAT is a legal form that shows how accessible you are right now. You need a VPAT if you work for the Federal Government or for a group that gets money from the Federal Government. Even if you don’t have one, more and more companies are making it a requirement for any digital seller.

Requirements for Event Venues

People with various limitations have rights that include seating accommodations, which means a set number of seats should be set aside to ensure they are accessible. The ADA requires a clear difference between a place that is unavailable and one that is, as well as rules about how tickets for specific seats can be sold.

General Seating

In general, the ADA says that about 1% of available seats at a place must be set aside for people with disabilities. But this amount changes based on how many seats there are. Since a person with a disability will likely be with at least one other person, the accessible seats must also have three extra places for those with them. If places can’t provide that many seats, the people who are with the person with a disability must be able to use the closest ones.

Ticket Sales 

Rules for selling tickets are also a mobility problem because of the ADA. Tickets for accessible seats can only be sold as non-accessible seats if all non-accessible seats in the same price level and area have already sold out. Since a place can’t require people with disabilities to show proof of disability to buy tickets for accessible seats, this is where accessible seating for events can get confusing and open to abuse. 

If tickets for places that are not available to people with disabilities can be given to others, people with disabilities should have the same rights. This means that someone who doesn’t have a disability can use a ticket for an accessible seat. It’s a rule that could be abused, but event managers could put something in their privacy policies to prevent it. 

They can let the ticket holder know they might have to move seats to what has been deemed a non-accessible seat if they do not require accessible seating. As much as possible, only people with disabilities should be able to use these places. But at the end of the day, the system is built on trust that people will be honest when they buy seats.

Student-Athletes and the ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act says that kids with disabilities must have the same chances to play sports and do other activities as everyone else. All team members must have the same access to fields, courts, locker rooms, meeting rooms, workout tools, and other amenities. But fair access does not mean any student gets “special treatment” or a leg up on the other students. 

The ADA clearly says that student-athletes with disabilities must be held to the same standards as their peers. Equal chance means that teachers and sports directors might have to make adjustments so students can participate. For instance, a deaf student on a track team who can’t hear the starter’s gun that starts the race might be given a warning light. The people in charge of the track meet ensured the student could participate the same way as everyone else without giving him or her an unfair advantage. 

Accommodations for sports sites are very specific and include things like the number and placement of bathrooms, elevators, signs, and the amount of space for seats. These rules must be built into the design of all new facilities and older facilities may be forced by law to follow these rules retroactively.

Conclusion

The ADA was made to ensure that everyone has the same chances, which means that companies have the right to have customers from all cultures. But because the rules are more about how things should be done, it can be hard to follow them even if you want to. 

Partnering with Unspoken Language Services is just one thing you can do to help level the playing field in sports and entertainment for members of the deaf community. At Unspoken Language Services, we provide professional interpreting services to help bridge the communication gap between the hearing and non-hearing world. Like you, we promote inclusion and equality in all aspects of a person’s life. 

Thumbnail Photo Credit to: Photo by Drab Makyo