Americans With Disabilities Act lawsuits can be helpful
As a long-time wheelchair user and disabled veteran,I found Jane Ann Morrison’s June 15 column to be a bit biased (“’Champion’ for disabled willing to drop lawsuits for quick cash”). The person who filed these lawsuits should not be held at fault. If everyone obeyed the applicable law, he would not be able to find an issue.
Fact is, in Las Vegas and Clark County there is no enforcement mechanism other than filing suit. Code enforcement is non-existent.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) set standards for things that are ignored. The law says there can be greater access, but not less. This has been violated here. One example is the designated parking spaces. They are required to be set aside only for those with significant mobility limitations. But Nevada grants this to many people who do not have such conditions. Because we have many physicians who lack ethics, anyone with a gray hair can get a handicapped certificate. When a permit is issued, the state should review the physician records.
When members of Congress passed this law, they did not foresee that the lazy or self-centered would use these spaces or that some physicians lacked the character to refuse requests from patients who are not limited.
I have seen young people get out and run when using them — one said his grandmother lets him use the placard. Once, a woman told me she was a nurse and had to get to work. One casino has slowly eliminated some of the spaces without consequence. One eatery eliminated a space to install a power unit and did not replace it.
Shape up Nevada.
