On July 13, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder signed revised standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These standards became effective as of March 15, 2011, but the implementation deadline for many of the rules is March 15 of this year. Nondiscrimination elements, except those regarding hotel reservations, were required to be implemented by March 15, 2011.
Some of the most important changes likely to impact persons living with MS involve reservations in places of lodging. The new standards mandate that lodging facilities hold accessible rooms for individuals with disabilities, unless all other rooms of that type have been rented. In addition to this requirement, lodging facilities must hold specific accessible guest rooms through its reservation service, even if the reservation service does not normally permit guests to request specific rooms. Additionally, individuals seeking accessible rooms must be allowed to make their reservations during the same hours and using the same service as those not seeking accessible rooms. For more information on these modifications, you can access the regulations here. However, USA Today notes that the U.S. Justice Department granted the hotel industry at least a 60-day extension for complying with a new rule aimed at making existing hotel pools compliant.
Other modifications include additional requirements related to accessible automatic teller machines (ATMs), including the services they have to offer and the accessibility features themselves. For more information on modifications to ATMs, you can access the regulations here.
