“Segways, at Disneyland? Could happen.” That’s how Chief Judge Alex Kozinski opened his decision in the case of a handicapped woman who wants to use one of those two-wheeled, motorized contraptions operated while standing, to get around the “happiest place on earth.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel sent the disabilities discrimination case back to the trial court with instructions to reconsider the accommodation.
Tina Baughman, who suffers from a form of muscular dystrophy, wanted to take her eight-year-old daughter to Disneyland and use a Segway to move around. But Disney policy allows wheelchairs and motorized scooters for the disabled, while banning bicycles and Segways.
Disney told Baughman no. She sued.
The district court said Baughman had no case because she could use a wheelchair, although it was difficult for her to stand and walk from a sitting position with her form of MS.
Vacation time is getting close. So she appealed to the 9th Circuit.
Cue Kozinski, stage right.
Disney argued that “necessary” under the Americans with Disabilities Act means only one thing, that the person can’t do without it. Baughman can access Disneyland using a wheelchair or scooter, so she doesn’t need a Segway, according to the park.
But Disney’s reading of the ADA “would require very few accommodations indeed,” Kozinski said. He pointed out a paraplegic can enter a courthouse by dragging himself up the steps, so a ramp isn’t really “necessary” using Disney’s logic.
“That’s not the world we live in,” he said.
Technology advances didn’t stop with scooters. Public accommodations must consider using or adapting technology advances to help disabled guests, according to the court.
If Disney “can make Baughman’s experience less onerous and more akin to that enjoyed by its able-bodied patrons, it must take reasonable steps to do so,” he wrote.
“We do not hold that Disney must permit Segways at its theme parks. It might be able to exclude them if it can prove that Segways can’t be operated safely in its parks,” he said.
“We have every confidence that the organization that, half a century ago, brought us the Carousel of Progress and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln can lead the way in using new technology to make its parks more welcoming to disabled guests,” Kozinski said.
He was joined by Judges Stephen Reinhardt and William Fletcher.
Case: Baughman v. Walt Disney World Co., No. 10-55792
TrialInsider.com 