From the Associated Press/USA Today:

Miniature golf courses, amusement parks, sport stadiums, fishing piers and bowling alleys are among millions of businesses and public facilities that would be affected by regulatory changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act that were proposed by the Justice Department last month.

The proposed regulations — 1,000 pages in all — are drawing intense scrutiny from businesses that foresee steep costs and disability rights advocates who say they don’t go far enough. Both groups are asking for clarification. Final regulations could take effect next year, after a period for public comment.

The cost to 7 million affected businesses plus state and local government agencies is estimated at $23 billion over 40 years.

Related editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

… Who are “the disabled”? (more…)

From Newsday:

A federal court of appeals has affirmed a 2005 jury verdict that found Wal-Mart guilty of job discrimination against a man with disabilities.

The retailer declined to say whether it would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. The jury had awarded Patrick Brady $7.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages, which were later reduced to $1 million.

Brady has cerebral palsy, walks with a limp, and has nervous hand movements and slowed speech. He sued Wal-Mart because he was demoted from pharmacy assistant to cart collector even though he had two years’ experience as a pharmacy assistant. Brady’s lawsuit said the store’s head pharmacist took one look at him and said he wasn’t “fit for the job.”

Two other major disability cases involving Wal-Mart have been reported this year. Earlier story: Wal-Mart pays $250,000 to fired worker with disabilities — Wall Street Journal and Baltimore Sun

Writing in Business Week, Rick Wartzman says expanded legal protections are only part of the solution to entrenched unemployment among people with disabilities. Businesses need to find ways to use everyone’s unique talents, he says, which will make businesses more effective even while making disabilities irrelevant and engendering customer loyalty. “Viewed this way, the disabled aren’t a liability; they’re an opportunity,” he says.

Still, many businesses remain obstinate. They say they worry about the possibility of increased costs, safety issues, the specter of legal liability, and how colleagues and customers will react.

But all of these things are simply excuses for shoddy management.

Wartzman is the director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University and an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

(Business Week photo)

The [UK] Independent:

Visionary British engineer Mike Spindle spent six years working alone, developing a high-performance wheelchair that would also look fabulous. The result is the Trekinetic, an all-terrain vehicle which sports a molded carbon fiber seat, three wheels, drum brakes and a simplified folding mechanism.

In the process of developing his design, Spindle has completely transformed an established, mature product, and, by extension, the market for that product. The Trekinetic is now being sold in in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia, and Spindle is pursuing his ambition of being “a major player in the global mobility scene.”

(Photo from the Independent)

From the Washington Post:

Thanks to a “remarkably cooperative effort by businesses and advocates of protections for the disabled,” an effort to expand ADA protections has passed the House and is expected to clear the Senate soon. The measure will recognize civil rights for people with disabilities, and instruct the Supreme Court to interpret the definition of disability more broadly. The changes will provide more opportunities for people with disabilities to seek protection without putting an undue burden on employers.

Although President Bush has expressed concerns that excess litigation may ensue, he is unlikely to veto the bill, nor should he.

As Britain’s Missing Top Model debuts, one of the judges writes on the BBC website about her hopes for the show. Lara Masters is a writer, model and actor who uses an electric wheelchair.

The fact is that fashion is a business and it is us, the consumers, who keep it thriving. Is it any wonder the industry sticks to a winning formula and largely shuns the idea of using bigger, more representational female models, let alone disabled models whose physical forms will be even more difficult to sell as aspirational?

Yet maybe the BBC’s reality show will make a difference. After all, fashionistas are always looking for something new, and disabled models are perfect to create intrigue and attract attention.

With video.

More about Lara Masters on BBC’s Ouch website.

From the Wall Street Journal (registration required):

The U.S. is moving on two fronts this week to expand businesses’ obligations to accommodate disabled people, in a legislative and regulatory push that risks a backlash from millions of businesses worried about costs.

On Wednesday, two House committees will finish crafting a bill that broadens the population entitled to employment rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, reversing Supreme Court decisions narrowing it. The bill could come to a vote before the July 4 recess, if lawmakers reach agreement. Also this week, the Bush administration will begin seeking public comment on 1,000 pages of proposed rules — covering issues from hotel-room doors to theater seating — clarifying existing regulations on physical access for disabled people.

The proposed regulations are expected to cost private and public establishments $22.8 billion, according to a Justice Department analysis …

… some advocates for disability rights are worried that the businesses affected will interpret the two-front push as the government piling on during economic hard times.