ADA lawsuits might actually do some good

In regard to your June 18 editorial on ADA lawsuits:

I agree that no one should be able to sue businesses over ADA noncompliance to make money. It hurts all of us. However, business owners need to assess just how friendly their businesses are to the more than 26 million seriously handicapped people in this country. We purchase goods and services too.

I would like to challenge the able-bodied managers and owners to just one day imagine that they have lost the use of one side of their body and are in a wheelchair. Then:

— Try to find a parking spot to get a wheelchair out.

— Maneuver a walker/wheelchair up a handicapped ramp.

— Enter a store with heavy doors or two-inch door jam.

Then deal try to deal with:

— Aisles in stores cluttered or not wide enough for wheelchairs.

— Bathrooms that don’t allow enough room to turn the wheelchair around to access the toilet or to even get the wheelchair in.

— Toilet stools so low that caretakers have to physically hold the patient to sit down.

I have been my husband’s caretaker for more than three years after he became paralyzed on left side. We don’t even go to movies because handicapped spots are so close to the screen that you leave with headache. We do most our shopping online. We would love to go to stores but it becomes so difficult and tiring that we stay home.

When you have a service dog with you, you are questioned, especially in hotels.

I do bring these issues to the attention of management but have yet to have it taken seriously.

So perhaps these lawsuits for money are doing us a favor. We have to consider that.