The National
Spinal Cord
Injury Association

Disability in the News.

MERRILL HARTSON Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government announced today agreement with Wendy's to make their restaurants more accessible to disabled customers.

The out-of-court agreement, involving the Justice Department and the attorneys general of nine states, was the latest in a series of enforcement actions the Clinton administration has taken under provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

It stemmed from a joint investigation by the department and the top legal officers of nine states, the first of its kind involving improvement of access to facilities for people with disabilities.

``Integrating people with disabilities into society, even into a fast food line, is what the ADA is all about,'' Attorney General Janet Reno said. ``People with disabilities do not want special treatment - they just want to be treated like everyone else.''

The department's civil rights division has been vigorously enforcing the ADA, and earlier this year struck deals with several movie theater chains to improve accommodations for the disabled.

A principal issue involved in the negotiations announced with Wendy's International, Inc., today was whether the restaurant chain could meet its responsibilities under the law by merely permitting customers in wheelchairs to be moved ahead of the line or to seek special attention of a restaurant employee for service.

Under the agreement, Wendy's will either widen lines so that they are accessible to customers in wheelchairs, or simply remove them from their stores.

The agreement resolves a two-year investigation into access at Wendy's restaurants by the Justice Department and the attorneys general of Arizona, Florida, California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

``I'm glad to do it. We want everyone to be a customer,'' said Dave Thomas, founder of the restaurant chain named for his daughter. ``We will be in compliance within 18 months.''

Discussing the problem at her weekly news conference today, Reno told reporters that law enforcement officials have had complaints about other entities where people get in line for service. The Wendy's case, however, was the first carried out by the agency in cooperation with state authorities and the first enforcement action against such lines.

``If a store wants business,'' she said, ``it doesn't let its customers turn away. And too often we've seen situations where someone in a wheelchair got frustrated and just left.''

``Everybody should want to do this from just common respect for each other, but there is also a business interest in it,'' Reno said. ``And I really hope that people will look at this not just with respect to waiting lines, but with respect to the width of doors, whether there's a ramp up that will permit somebody to get into the store in an easy fashion. There are just so many small steps that can be taken to open up America for so many people to have access to something that most of us take for granted.''

The federal-state task force, during the course of the investigation, visited newly constructed and older Wendy's restaurants in 12 states, including the nine where state attorneys general participated.

``The task force found that most Wendy's restaurants had customer queue lines that were too narrow for wheelchairs,'' the department said in a statement. ``Other than the queue lines, Wendy's restaurants were found to have very few compliance problems.''

Reno said that ``banks, retail stores and other restaurants should follow Wendy's example and see if they, too, can become even more accessible.''

Under terms of the agreement, the Ohio-based food chain agreed to:

-Either remove or widen the customer queues at all of its nearly 1,700 corporate-owened or leased restaurants in 39 states.

-Notify all franchisees of the agreement and of their obligations under the ADA.

-Allow the task force to conduct spot checks of restaurants covered by the agreement, to ensure that customer queues have been removed or widened.

-Remove various other barriers found at the 17 newly constructed restaurants visited by the joint task force.''

Back to Disability in the News.

Browse the News Room Archives