- Too-high hotel beds suck the joy out of travel for many wheelchair users.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act says hotel rooms must be accessible, but not the room’s furniture.
- DOJ may do something meaningful to require accessible hotel beds by the end of 2023 but don’t get your hopes up.
- Our Accessibility Services director of codes and standards, Marsha Mazz, tells us more. Marsha is eager to answer your access questions. Please send your inquiry by replying to our United Spinal newsletter.
Question: What good is an accessible hotel room without an accessible bed?
When your hotel bed is a foot higher than your wheelchair seat, its only purpose is to hold up your suitcase. Why don’t the ADA Standards address this? Can’t the Access Board settle on a bed height – what’s the hold-up?
Sincerely, Pete L.
Answer: The truth is that the Access Board does not have the authority to address furniture in hotel rooms or anywhere else.
While the ADA requires the Board to develop accessibility guidelines for buildings and facilities — that is, fixed or built-in elements — only the U.S. Department of Justice has the power to write accessibility requirements for furniture. In July 2010, DOJ published a notice in the Federal Register outlining its authority under the ADA to require accessible furniture in accessible spaces. They asked several questions about what standards they might adopt, including regulating bed heights in hotels, nursing homes, and other care facilities.
Unfortunately, this rulemaking never materialized and was withdrawn on Dec. 26, 2017. This is what typically happens with unfinished regulatory actions at the end of one president’s administration and the beginning of another.
In Spring 2022, the DOJ announced that it would initiate rulemaking pertaining to accessible equipment and furniture. The rule is due in 2023 and will apply to places of public accommodation and state and local government.
Don’t Celebrate Yet!
A review of the 2023 DOJ/CRT Unified Agenda doesn’t contain any information about this rulemaking! We can only hope that’s an error and the rulemaking is moving forward, albeit at a snail’s pace. Members can call DOJ at 800-514-0301 (voice) or 833-610-1264 (TTY) to ask about progress on this rulemaking.
Some of Us Can Look to Our State or Local Building Code for Help
Most states. enforce the International Code Council’s International Building Code. In 2017 the IBC’s accessibility standard, ICC A117.1 Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities, added a requirement for accessible beds to be no lower than 17 inches and no higher than 23 inches – measured to the top of the uncompressed mattress. These dimensions were proposed by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and supported by United Spinal Association’s Accessibility Services. The standard also requires accessible beds to have open frames so that a personal lift can slide beneath. Also required is a wheelchair charging station near the transfer space at the bed.
Bear in mind that building codes are not applied retroactively, so these requirements will only apply in new and altered hotels. Also, according to UpCodes, only 14 states currently enforce the 2017 Edition of the ICC A117.1. We expect most of the remaining states to update within the next three to six years. Hopefully, by then, DOJ will wake up and issue federal civil rights requirements for hotel beds that will be applied uniformly across the country.
DOJ already requires hotel reservation systems to provide detailed information about their guest room accessibility features so “individuals with disabilities can assess independently whether a given hotel or guest room meets his or her accessibility needs.”
Hunh?
That brings up back to our first point. The type of bathing fixture provided in the guest bathroom doesn’t matter much if you can’t sleep in the bed.
Are you a member of United Spinal Association interested in making a difference for people with SCI/D and all wheelchair users? Join our Grassroots Advocacy Network today.
A note about the art at the top of the page: The illustration at the top of the page was created by Adobe’s generative AI Firefly. Adobe only produces AI images from royalty-free art it owns. We are interested in helping AI create appropriate disability images and will keep working to help refine and strengthen its creations. We are committed to doing so ethically and transparently.
