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Disability Coalition Declares War on Non-Compliant Hotels The pool lift controversy is reaching a fevered pitch as a coalition of disability rights groups calls for a boycott against hotels that do not have pool lifts. Wednesday, July 18, 2012 Glenn Haussman

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Leading disability groups are declaring war on hotels that do not install fixed pool lifts. In a conference call this morning, association leaders made a declaration for all disabled people to boycott any and every hotel that does not have a fixed pool lift in every single pool and hot tub at a given property.

The call this morning was sponsored by a coalition of disability rights groups including the American Association of People with Disabilities, National Disability Rights Network, ADAPT, National Council on Independent Living, and more than 50 local and state disability rights groups and service providers.

The groups say this is a direct result of actions taken by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA).

“The hotel industry led by trade associations pressured to delay and revise rules. They got a delay to 2013 because they argued they needed it for back ordered pool lifts. The hotel industry has gotten a lot of what they wanted but still sent their attack dogs to Congress,” said Mark Perriello, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).

“Their position is no one can require them to install equipment and the AH&LA and AAHOA are fighting to get out of any responsibility to make pools accessible. Every time you check into a hotel and hand over a credit card you may be funding this effort. People with disabilities get less than what they paid for. We are saying ‘No you cannot have my money and no I won’t be a second class customer,” continued Perriello.

The groups called for a boycott of any hotel that is not in compliance or does not intend to comply by the January 2013 deadline. A website naming all accessible hotels is expected to be launched that will have hotels that are in compliance.

The boycott will target hotels and chains represented on the boards of the AHLA and AAHOA, chains such as Carlson-Rezidor’s Radisson as well as ownership groups like Kimpton, Sage Hospitality and JMP.

“We know that the disability community is a very active the use of hotels for meetings, conferences and seminars and we will use that economic clout,” said Curt Decker, Executive Director of the National Disability Rights Network. “If you are accessible you will get our business, if not you won’t. With more people aging it is a very bad business model to not offer services as part of organized meeting and as individual users.

The hotel industry has not had problems spending millions on amenities such as flat screen TVs and renovating restaurants but when comes to basic civil rights or those with disabilities they claim economic hardship or other issues,” Decker added.

Bruce Darling of ADAPT, an organization founded in 1983 to advocate for lifts on public buses, said he is “deeply concerned” because this is not limited to attacks on swimming pools but undercuts civil rights and opens the door for other attacks.

“We are not just going to approach this just from a boycott perspective because this is personal. I take this personally and will respond personally. We are urging disability groups to boycott and picket to demonstrate [hotels] are undercutting civil rights and we are not going to stand for that,” said Darling.

A press release issued this morning stated that “according to a Harris Poll conducted in conjunction with Open Doors Organization and the Travel Industry of America, ‘the 50 million people with disabilities in our country have a combined income of more than $1.75 billion. In 2002, this community took 32 million trips and spent more than $13.6 billion on travel ($4.2 billion on hotels, $3.3 billion on airfare, $2.7 billion on food and beverage, and $3.4 billion on retail, transportation, and other activities).

However, the coalition also states there are just 3.3 million wheelchair bound people in the United States.

During the conference Colleen Starkloff, Co-Director of the Starkloff Disability Institute, said it was a safety issue and an equality issue. “We are worried about safety to users and the risk of tipping or malfunctioning,” she said.

However, when Hotel Interactive asked if portable pool lifts were indeed dangerous why are they legal?, Kelly Buckland, Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living said “when you show up at a pool, many don’t have lifeguard and attendant and [potable lifts] are usually locked in a closet and no one is there to get it out for you. And people don’t know how to work it.”

Hotel Interactive also mentioned that excluding resorts, pools are the least used amenity in the hotel and that many hotels we have spoken to have never received a single request for a pool lift. We asked that in the spirit of compromise the ADA rules should be limited to require only hotels that promote swimming pool as a central amenity. We were cut off. We tried to ask the question again but were prevented from asking and the conference call came to an immediate close.

Hotel Interactive has contacted the public relations firm behind today’s call and is awaiting a response to why the coalition feels every hotel in the country needs to have a pool lift though the typical hotel pool is rarely used altogether. And if this is such a critical issue why very few disabled people have ever requested a pool lift outside a resort hotel.

If we get a response we will report it.

Last week we proposed what we feel is a smart solution to this issue and you can read that position in the article Pool Lift Pandemonium - Enough Already!