Unhappy about the U.S. hotel industry’s unwillingness to install lifts for disabled guests in on-property pools, a coalition of advocacy groups for disabled Americans have announced a boycott of hotel companies represented by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.
The boycott campaign is being organized by the American Association of People with Disabilities, National Disability Rights Network, ADAPT, the National Council on Independent Living and over 50 other groups and service providers.
Hotel companies being targeted by the groups include Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, San Francisco.
The coalition promised that more widespread hotel boycotts will be launched beginning on July 26, which is the 22nd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and will be accompanied by an online public awareness campaign.
“These industry groups are fighting tooth and nail to prevent Americans with disabilities from gaining access to their pools,” said Mark Perriello, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. “Twenty-two years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it’s disappointing to see the so-called ‘hospitality industry’ fight so hard to prevent its implementation. Now the disability community is fighting back.”
The American Hotel & Lodging Association lobbied against the requirements since the Department of Justice announced in January that the installation of permanent lifts, as opposed to portable lifts that only some U.S. hotels have, would become mandatory before March 15. The government later pushed the date back to January 31, 2013. The standards for disabled access to every on-property pool and jacuzzi were adopted in 2010.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association argues that the permanent lifts represent a potential liability for hotels in unsupervised pools.