Park Meadows, Orchard Town entrances violate ADA, judge rules

[mark handler]

Park Meadows, Orchard Town entrances violate ADA, judge rules

By Howard Pankratz

The Denver Post

Posted: 09/01/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18800167

Park Meadows, Orchard Town entrances violate ADA, judge rules - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18800167#ixzz1WiGvbfwa

Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel ruled Wed nesday that the center-front entrances of the Hollister stores at the Park Meadows and Orchard Town Center shopping centers violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Five people who use wheelchairs and the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition filed a lawsuit in 2009 claiming that they were discriminated against because Hollister stores have a porchlike entrance with steps that prevent people in wheelchairs from getting into the main entrance.

Hollister, an apparel retailer popular with youths, maintained that it wasn't violating the ADA because at either side of the front entrance are ground-level entrances accessible to the general public, including people in wheelchairs.

Kevin Williams, CCDC legal-program director, said Hollister, a brand of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., used a building design that hides the two side entrances.

"You have to be a real smart detective in a wheelchair to get into that place," Williams said.

Williams said the Hollister stores at Park Meadows in Lone Tree and Orchard Town Center in Westminster are the only two of seven Colorado Hollister stores that have the steps. But he said about 50 percent of the 400-plus U.S. Hollister stores have the porch steps.

He said the CCDC will likely seek class-action status for the lawsuit, which would expand the action nationwide to cover other Hollister stores of the same design.

Mark Knueve, a lawyer representing Hollister, said the company had no comment.

Daniel said Hollister, in claiming the side entrances were sufficient, took a "micro view" that didn't take the aims of "the ADA to heart" and fulfill its "overarching aims."

Daniel said the U.S. Justice Department filed a statement stating that because the stores were built after the ADA took effect, the design and construction of the entrances violate the purpose and the letter of the ADA.

Daniel agreed, saying Hollister unnecessarily created a design for its brand that excludes people using wheelchairs "from full enjoyment of the aesthetic for that brand."

"The steps to the center entrance are a legally unacceptable piece of branding" and violated the ADA, he said.

Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com

 

[Msradell]

I've often wondered about those entrances. Here in Louisville we have a Aeropostale store with the same type of entrance. The side doors they are referring to actually look like a large blinds and there always closed.

 

[mtlogcabin]

excludes people using wheelchairs "from full enjoyment of the aesthetic for that brand."

So if they remove the aesthetics from the stepped entrance there would be nothing to enjoy. Or maybe just include the wheelchair entrance in to the same aesthetics. What would the reason be then?

Aesthetics (also spelled æsthetics or esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.[1] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.[2] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature."[3][4