November 12, 1993

The Honorable Lane Evans

Member, U.S. House of Representatives
1535 47th Avenue, #5
Moline, Illinois 61265

Dear Congressman Evans:

This letter is in response to your inquiry to the Equal

Employment opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of your
constituent, Mr. Larry Plachno, concerning his rights under the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"). The EEOC
referred your letter to us because the issues raised by
Mr. Plachno are not within the jurisdiction of that agency.

The ADA authorizes the Department of Justice to provide

technical assistance to individuals and entities having rights or
obligations under the Act. This letter provides informal
guidance to assist your constituent in understanding the ADA's
requirements. However, it does not constitute a legal
interpretation, and it is not binding on the Department.

Mr. Plachno first expresses a concern that the ADA and its
implementing regulations may offer protection only for
individuals who use wheelchairs, but not for other individuals
with disabilities. In particular, Mr. Plachno is concerned about
individuals who, like himself, have disabilities which
necessitate frequent access to restroom facilities.

The ADA and the implementing regulations developed by the

Department of Justice in no way limit their application to
individuals who use wheelchairs. Both the statute and the
regulations define the term "disability" to mean any physical or
mental condition that substantially limits one or more major life
activities, like walking, seeing, hearing, working, caring for
oneself, or performing manual tasks. Indeed, the Department of
Justice's regulation implementing title III of the ADA, the
title of the ADA that prohibits discrimination on the basis of

cc: Records, Chrono, Wodatch, McDowney, Blizard, Contois, FOIA,

MAF
Udd:Contois:CGL:Evans.JLB
01-02688
​ -2-

disability by privately owned and operated places of public

accommodation, lists several examples of physical impairments,
other than mobility impairments, that may be considered
disabilities under the ADA, including impairments of the sense
organs, or impairments of the respiratory, cardiovascular,
reproductive, digestive, and genitourinary systems. In sum, the
individuals Mr. Plachno is concerned about are quite probably
individuals who come within the protections of the ADA, and the
Department's implementing regulations.

At the same time, however, it must be noted that the ADA

generally does not require either privately owned places of
public accommodation, or publicly owned buildings or facilities,
to provide a particular number of restroom facilities, or even to
provide restrooms at all. Typically, the question of whether and
how many restrooms a particular type of facility must provide for
the public is an issue that is addressed by state and local
building codes. The approach of the ADA is simply to require
that if they are provided, restroom facilities must be accessible
to all of our citizens, including all of our citizens with
disabilities. Thus, if Mr. Plachno has concerns that not enough
restrooms are provided by certain types of facilities, he should
address those concerns to the officials or organizations
responsible for the state and local building codes which govern
whether particular types of facilities must provide restrooms,
and how many.

Mr. Plachno next expresses his concern about the

accessibility of restrooms in municipal buses and intra-city rail
facilities. Under the ADA, the Department of Transportation has
jurisdiction over public transit systems; accordingly, we are
not able to provide guidance or assistance on this issue.
Rather, Mr. Plachno should address his questions and comments to
the Assistant General Counsel for Regulation and Enforcement,
U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room
10424, Washington, D.C. 20590.

Similarly, the Department of Transportation sets the

passenger safety rules which prohibit use of restroom facilities
on aircraft during takeoff and landing, another of Mr. Plachno's
concerns. If Mr. Plachno wishes to petition the Department of
Transportation for changes in those rules, he may write to them
at the address in the preceding paragraph.

Finally, Mr. Plachno suggests that places of public

accommodation be required to provide parking spaces for
recreational vehicles, so that individuals with disabilities who
use such vehicles for mobility will have better access to places
of public accommodation. Title III does not currently require
places of public accommodation to provide parking for

01-02689

-3-

recreational vehicles, and there are many places of public

accommodation, particularly in urban or other heavily developed
areas, which might have great difficulty in providing sufficient
space for parking recreational vehicles.

Nonetheless, we contacted the Architectural and

transportation Barriers compliance Board, the federal agency
which has responsibility for drafting the ADA Accessibility
Guidelines, the architectural standards governing the design and
construction of new places of public accommodation and commercial
facilities. Representatives of the Board indicated that they had
also received a letter from Mr. Plachno, and were considering his
comments. Indeed, they may have already responded to him
directly.

I have enclosed for your information copies of the

Department of Justice's title III implementing regulation, and
the Department's Title III Technical Assistance Manual. The
regulation defines the term disability and gives examples of the
kinds of conditions that are covered in section 36.104 (page
35593), and the definition of the term disability is discussed at
length in the preamble to the regulation (pages 35548-35550). In
addition, the Technical Assistance Manual explains the coverage
of the ADA on pages 8-12.

I hope this information is useful to you in responding to

your constituent.

Sincerely,
 Brian K. Landsberg
Acting Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division

Enclosures