ADA Public Accommodations (Title III)

The part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that applies to businesses open to the public - shops, restaurants, hotels, clinics, theaters, and in many courts their websites - requiring access, policy changes and communication aids, with the cost limits that shape what can be demanded.

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What it means

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by "public accommodations" - private businesses and non-profits whose operations affect commerce and fall within twelve listed categories that between them cover nearly every place a member of the public can enter, from a corner shop to a hospital. It also covers commercial facilities and the entities that offer examinations and courses. Government buildings and services are covered by Title II instead, and employment by Title I. Religious organizations and private clubs are exempt.

The obligations are of three kinds. A public accommodation must make reasonable modifications to its policies and practices for a person with a disability - admitting a service animal, allowing a companion in, adjusting a no-outside-food rule for a medical need - unless the change would fundamentally alter what it offers. It must provide auxiliary aids and services so that communication with a person who is deaf, blind or has another communication disability is as effective as with anyone else, unless doing so would be an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. And it must remove physical barriers in existing buildings where removal is "readily achievable" - easily accomplished without much difficulty or expense, judged against the business's resources - while new construction and alterations must meet the federal accessibility standards in full. Whether a website or app is a place of public accommodation is decided differently by different federal courts; the Department of Justice takes the position that the law applies to the online offerings of covered businesses.

A private individual may sue for an injunction ordering the business to comply and, if they prevail, for attorney's fees, but not for damages under the federal statute; damages are available only in a suit by the Attorney General, and under a number of state accessibility laws that run in parallel. That remedy structure is why Title III suits are typically brought to change something rather than to be compensated, and why serial litigation over technical violations has led some states and courts to impose pre-suit notice requirements.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

For a person refused access, the practical first step is a written request to the business naming the modification or aid needed, because most Title III claims are won or lost on whether a reasonable request was made and refused. A lawyer is worth consulting when the refusal persists, when the barrier is physical and the business claims removal is not readily achievable, or when a state law offers damages the federal statute does not. Businesses that receive a demand letter should treat it as the start of a compliance question, not a nuisance claim, and get advice before responding.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

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Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• Disparate ImpactDiscrimination without a discriminatory intent - a neutral rule, test or practice that falls much harder on a protected group and cannot be justified by business necessity - and the statutes under which that theory is and is not available.
• Excessive ForceThe constitutional limit on how much force police may use in a stop, an arrest or a search - judged by what a reasonable officer would have done in the moment, and the reason body-camera footage decides more of these cases than testimony does.
• False Arrest and Malicious ProsecutionThe claims available to a person detained without probable cause or prosecuted without it - the state torts, their constitutional counterparts, and the favorable-termination rule that decides when a malicious-prosecution claim can be brought at all.
• Filing a Discrimination Charge (EEOC)The administrative step that must come before almost any federal employment-discrimination lawsuit - a charge filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state agency within a short statutory window, followed by a right-to-sue letter that starts the next clock.
• Housing Discrimination (Fair Housing Act)The federal law making it unlawful to refuse housing, or set different terms, because of who someone is.
• Prisoners' Rights and the Prison Litigation Reform ActThe constitutional protections that survive incarceration - against cruel and unusual conditions, deliberate indifference to medical needs, and punishment without process - and the federal statute that makes a prisoner exhaust the prison's own grievance system before any of them can be enforced in court.
• Reasonable AccommodationA change to a job, workplace or housing rule that lets a person with a disability participate equally - required unless it imposes undue hardship.
• Religious Freedom (RFRA and RLUIPA)The federal statutes that require government to justify any substantial burden on religious exercise by a compelling interest pursued in the least restrictive way - stronger than the constitutional rule, and the basis of most modern religious-liberty claims by prisoners, congregations and employers.
• Retaliation for Protected ActivityThe separate legal wrong of punishing a person for complaining about discrimination, reporting a violation, taking protected leave or helping in an investigation - a claim that often succeeds where the underlying complaint would not.
• Section 1983 Civil Rights ClaimThe federal statute allowing someone to sue a state or local official personally for violating their constitutional rights.

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