Access Advocates helps people with disabilities who have certain rights to accessibility in public and private buildings open to public access. This includes people with impaired vision who are guaranteed readable signage in Braille, people in wheelchairs who must have the ability to access goods and services, as well as many other people.
There are many times you as an individual may find yourself in a building that does not service your needs, but only some of these times do you have a legally guaranteed course of action. The following are 4 examples of those times:
Inability to Move Through Halls
This is specifically regarding individuals who are confined to a wheelchair. If the size of the walls impedes transportation to public events, bathrooms, food, or other goods and services, the building is required to be changed, by law.
No Directions
For people with limited to no vision, there are certain signs that are required to be clearly labeled with Braille: these include bathrooms, exits, and room numbers. If these are not available, the property management is required by law to put them up.
Improper Communication
If certain information in a public place, like a store or restaurant, is not available to you in a manner that you can access, employees are required to provide it to you as a service. Therefore, people with vision impairment may ask a customer service representative to read price-tags for them. If a necessary means of communication is neither present nor provided by employees, you may need Access Advocates help in making the building compliant.
No Accessible (“Handicapped”) Parking
If you do not have access to the parking lot, you do not have access to the building.
While it may often seem like too much of a fuss for just you, the truth of the matter is, limited access hurts multiple people within the community including the businesses within a building. This is the principle behind the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and access advocates has a great track record of working with individuals who have faced discrimination because of a disability and ensuring that the building in question maintains compliance. Please contact us today if any of these events have happened to you and you need our help.