ADA Requirements for Retail Stores: Setting Your Business Up for Success

In 2014 alone, American retail stores were hit with more than 5,000 lawsuits due to failures to meet ADA requirements properly. These lawsuits cost businesses more than $100 million.

For many retail store owners, these lawsuits appear unexpectedly. Currently, the ADA does not require people to give businesses prior notice of alleged ADA violation

before filing a suit. These lawsuits are often unexpected, and almost always unwelcome.

Add that to the fact nearly 19% of Americans have some disability - that’s over

50 million potential customers - and your

business could lose thousands of dollars every year by not being ADA compliant.

To help ensure your business is ADA compliant, and not losing money because of problems with easily remediable solutions, we put together this retail ADA compliance primer What is the ADA?

The American with Disabilities Act of 1990 was enacted to guarantee that people with disabilities aren’t excluded from participating in everyday activities: eating out at a restaurant, going to a movie, or shopping at a grocery store.

There are two sections of the ADA that you should be paying closest attention to when starting a retail business: Title I and Title III.

Title I

Title I of ADA covers employment.

It says that any employer engaged in an industry “affecting commerce” that employs 15 or more full-time employees each working day for at least 20 or more weeks of the calendar year cannot discriminate against people with disabilities when they’re hiring new employees.

If your business has less than 14 full-time employees or is operational less than 20 weeks a year, you do not necessarily have to comply with Title I of the Act.

Consult the ADA’s website to see if this applies to you.

Title III

Title III states that any business that provides goods to the public - services or commercial goods - cannot discriminate against customers based on a disability. That means your business needs to be accessible to persons with disabilities and you cannot turn-aways a customer based on a disability.

This applies to 12 different types of establishments:

• Shopping Malls

• Stores & Shops

• Theaters & Hotels

• Restaurants & Bars

• Service Establishments

• Doctors and Dentists Offices

• Private Museums and Schools

Nearly all businesses that serve the public are included of this list and all need to comply with Title III, regardless of the business’ size or the age of the building it’s housed in.