Lawyer Listings Add, Update, or Remove Listings

ADA Public Accommodations (Title III)

The part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that applies to businesses open to the public - shops, restaurants, hotels, clinics, theatres, and in many courts their websites - requiring access, policy changes and communication aids, with the cost limits that shape what can be demanded.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of law firms for this.

What it means

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by "public accommodations" - private businesses and non-profits whose operations affect commerce and fall within twelve listed categories that between them cover nearly every place a member of the public can enter, from a corner shop to a hospital. It also covers commercial facilities and the entities that offer examinations and courses. Government buildings and services are covered by Title II instead, and employment by Title I. Religious organisations and private clubs are exempt.

The obligations are of three kinds. A public accommodation must make reasonable modifications to its policies and practices for a person with a disability - admitting a service animal, allowing a companion in, adjusting a no-outside-food rule for a medical need - unless the change would fundamentally alter what it offers. It must provide auxiliary aids and services so that communication with a person who is deaf, blind or has another communication disability is as effective as with anyone else, unless doing so would be an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. And it must remove physical barriers in existing buildings where removal is "readily achievable" - easily accomplished without much difficulty or expense, judged against the business's resources - while new construction and alterations must meet the federal accessibility standards in full. Whether a website or app is a place of public accommodation is decided differently by different federal courts; the Department of Justice takes the position that the law applies to the online offerings of covered businesses.

A private individual may sue for an injunction ordering the business to comply and, if they prevail, for attorney's fees, but not for damages under the federal statute; damages are available only in a suit by the Attorney General, and under a number of state accessibility laws that run in parallel. That remedy structure is why Title III suits are typically brought to change something rather than to be compensated, and why serial litigation over technical violations has led some states and courts to impose pre-suit notice requirements.

Where this comes from

Title III is 42 U.S.C. §§ 12181-12189: the general rule at § 12182, the categories of public accommodation at § 12181(7), the readily-achievable barrier-removal standard at § 12182(b)(2)(A)(iv), and the private remedy at § 12188. The implementing regulation is 28 C.F.R. part 36, with the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design incorporated at § 36.104. The Department of Justice's guidance on web accessibility for public accommodations was issued in 2022; the state-law damages remedies that supplement the federal injunction, and any pre-suit notice rule, are each state's own.

When people hire a lawyer for this

For a person refused access, the practical first step is a written request to the business naming the modification or aid needed, because most Title III claims are won or lost on whether a reasonable request was made and refused. A lawyer is worth consulting when the refusal persists, when the barrier is physical and the business claims removal is not readily achievable, or when a state law offers damages the federal statute does not. Businesses that receive a demand letter should treat it as the start of a compliance question, not a nuisance claim, and get advice before responding.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

Choose your state. Each link opens the directory page for the city in that state with the most currently published law firms in this practice area; a +n beside the city is how many other cities in the state also have one. The list is generated when this page loads, so a state whose listings have lapsed drops out rather than becoming a dead link.

Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

Disparate ImpactDiscrimination without a discriminatory intent - a neutral rule, test or practice that falls much harder on a protected group and cannot be justified by business necessity - and the statutes under which that theory is and is not available.
Excessive ForceThe constitutional limit on how much force police may use in a stop, an arrest or a search - judged by what a reasonable officer would have done in the moment, and the reason body-camera footage decides more of these cases than testimony does.
False Arrest and Malicious ProsecutionThe claims available to a person detained without probable cause or prosecuted without it - the state torts, their constitutional counterparts, and the favourable-termination rule that decides when a malicious-prosecution claim can be brought at all.
Filing a Discrimination Charge (EEOC)The administrative step that must come before almost any federal employment-discrimination lawsuit - a charge filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state agency within a short statutory window, followed by a right-to-sue letter that starts the next clock.
Housing Discrimination (Fair Housing Act)The federal law making it unlawful to refuse housing, or set different terms, because of who someone is.
Prisoners' Rights and the Prison Litigation Reform ActThe constitutional protections that survive incarceration - against cruel and unusual conditions, deliberate indifference to medical needs, and punishment without process - and the federal statute that makes a prisoner exhaust the prison's own grievance system before any of them can be enforced in court.
Reasonable AccommodationA change to a job, workplace or housing rule that lets a person with a disability participate equally - required unless it imposes undue hardship.
Religious Freedom (RFRA and RLUIPA)The federal statutes that require government to justify any substantial burden on religious exercise by a compelling interest pursued in the least restrictive way - stronger than the constitutional rule, and the basis of most modern religious-liberty claims by prisoners, congregations and employers.
Retaliation for Protected ActivityThe separate legal wrong of punishing a person for complaining about discrimination, reporting a violation, taking protected leave or helping in an investigation - a claim that often succeeds where the underlying complaint would not.
Section 1983 Civil Rights ClaimThe federal statute allowing someone to sue a state or local official personally for violating their constitutional rights.

« All glossary terms

Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.