XX

XX
DEC 6 1993

Mr. Thomas G. Daly

Corporate Director of Safety
Hilton Hotels Corporation
9336 Civic Center Drive
Beverly Hills, California 90210

Dear Tom:

I am writing in response to your letters regarding the

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I apologize for the delay
in responding.

The ADA authorizes the Department of Justice to provide

technical assistance to individuals and entities having rights or
obligations under the Act. This letter provides informal
guidance to assist you in understanding the ADA's requirements.
However, it does not constitute a legal interpretation and it is
not binding on the Department.

Your first letter asked a series of questions regarding the

rental of hotel rooms to guests with disabilities. Your second
letter inquired about alarm systems.

Regarding hotel obligations under the ADA, you ask first

whether a hotel may decline to rent a guestroom that is not
accessible to a guest with a mobility impairment if all
accessible guestrooms are occupied and, if not, whether the hotel
can require the guest to sign a waiver of liability.

Under title III of the ADA, no individual may be

discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and
equal enjoyment of the goods, services, and accommodations of any
place of public accommodation (28 C.F.R. S 36.202). A place of
public accommodation may impose legitimate safety requirements,
even if they tend to screen out persons with disabilities.
However, these requirements must be based on actual risks and on
facts about particular individuals, not on stereotypes or
generalizations about individuals with disabilities or on the
basis of presumptions as to a class of individuals with
cc: Records, Chrono, Wodatch, Magagna
udd\magagna\pl\ XX

01-02802
-2-

disabilities can or cannot do. A policy that denies persons with

mobility or hearing impairments the use of an inaccessible room
on the basis of safety concerns may constitute the kind of
prohibited generalization or presumption about what a class of
individuals with disabilities can or cannot do. Note that any
safety standard must be applied to all clients or customers of
the place of accommodation, and inquiries about it must be
limited to matters necessary to carrying out the specific
standard. Hotel guests with disabilities assume the same
ordinary safety risks as do guests without disabilities.

It is discriminatory to apply eligibility criteria or

standards that screen out or tend to screen out an individual
with a disability or a class of individuals with disabilities
from the full and equal enjoyment of any goods and services,
unless such criteria can be shown to be necessary for the
provision of the goods and services (28 CFR S 36.301).
Therefore, singling out persons with disabilities to sign waivers
of liability as a condition of becoming a hotel guest is likely
an example of an eligibility criterion that tends to screen out
persons with disabilities.

We presume under your scenario that a person with a

disability is being offered a non-accessible room because all
accessible guestrooms are occupied by persons with disabilities.
If that is not the case, the hotel should move non disabled guests
to another room and provide the accessible room to the person
with a mobility impairment. This situation can be avoided by
reserving the hotels accessible rooms until all the other rooms
are booked, by renting accessible rooms to non disabled guests for
one night only, or by notifying non disabled persons who rent
accessible rooms that they may be asked to move to another room.

Furthermore, an existing hotel that has an insufficient

number of accessible rooms, according to the ADA Standards for
Accessible Design, Section 9.1.2, is obligated under the ADA to
remove architectural barriers to access and make the requisite
number of rooms accessible, to the extent it is readily
achievable to do so. Please also remember that, in altering
guest rooms or when constructing new hotels, a hotel must make a
certain number of the guest rooms accessible. For the
appropriate numbers of accessible rooms, please refer to Section
9 of the Standards for Accessible Design.

Your second question is whether a hotel must accede to a

request to rent a non-accessible room to a guest with a mobility
impairment when accessible rooms are available and, if so,
whether the hotel can require the guest to sign a waiver of
liability. Individuals with disabilities are not required to
accept accessible accommodations. Section 501(d) of the ADA
specifically provides:
001-02803

-3-

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require an

individual with a disability to accept an accommodation,
aid, service, opportunity, or benefit which such individual
chooses not accept.

Because an individual has a statutory right to decline the

accessible room in the first instance, a penalty in the form of
requiring a waiver of liability cannot be imposed for exercising
that right.

Your third question is whether the hotel may deny a room to

a guest who is deaf and who desires a room equipped for persons
with hearing impairments. Again we presume that only persons
with disabilities are occupying such rooms on that evening. If
not, non-disabled persons should be moved to allow the person with
a disability to occupy the room.

In order to provide equal access, a public accommodation is

required to make available appropriate auxiliary aids and
services where necessary to ensure effective communication (28
C.F.R. 36.303). The hotel maintains its responsibility to
provide effective communication, even though a guest with a
hearing impairment is placed in an inaccessible room. Therefore,
if all the rooms equipped with visual alarms are occupied, the
hotel is still responsible for providing effective communication
by alternative methods, such as portable alarms, or other devices
if it is not an undue burden. The hotel is strongly encouraged
to consult with the individual with a disability to ensure the
choice of an auxiliary aid or service that will result in
effective communication.

Your second letter deals with the question of installation

heights for visual alarm devices as provided in section 4.28.3(6)
of the Standards. This provision requires that the visual
appliances of the alarm system be located 80 inches above the
highest floor level within the space or 6 inches below the
ceiling, whichever is lower. This requirement was based on data
indicating that 80 inches was the most effective height for a 75-
candela lamp. The additional requirement that the lamp of
ceiling mounted devices be below the ceiling, rather than
recessed into or flush with ceiling, was included because the
reflection of the flash on the ceiling surface is an important
factor affecting the visibility of the visual alarm device. This
data and reasoning is explained in the enclosed technical
bulletin on visual alarms that was developed by the Architectural
and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board.

Section 2.2 of the Standards, Equivalent Facilitation,

permits departures from particular technical requirements when
alternative designs and technologies can be shown to provide
equivalent or greater accessibility. The concept of equivalent
facilitation allows for deviations from technical provisions of

-4-

the standards when it is necessary to meet the requirements of

other applicable regulations. However, the Department does not
certify or approve individual proposals of equivalent
facilitation.

We hope that the information above is of help to you.

Please feel free to contact the Public Access Section any time
you have other questions or need further information. The
Department maintains a telephone information line to provide
technical assistance regarding the rights and obligations of
individuals, businesses, agencies, and others covered or
protected by the ADA. This technical assistance is available by
calling 202-514-0301 (voice) or 202-514-0383 (TDD) between 1:00
p.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday,
 Sincerely,

John L. Wodatch
Chief
Public Access Section

Enclosure
Visual Alarms Bulletin

01-02802