Under ruling, disabled cruisers will get wider accessibility

By Mary Lu Abbott, Special to The Times
12:00 AM PDT, July 17, 2005

When Doug Spector, Julia Hollenbeck and Rodger Peters boarded Norwegian Cruise Line ships in wheelchairs and electric scooters in the late 1990s, they never dreamed they were starting a journey that would take them to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last month, in a landmark decision, the justices ruled that the Americans With Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against disabled people in public accommodations and transportation in the U.S., also applies to foreign-flagged ships calling at U.S. ports. The ruling means that most of the North American cruise fleet — which carries 9 million U.S. passengers annually — must provide disabled-access facilities.

But the justices stopped short of ordering cruise lines to make extensive permanent structural changes, noting that the act says alterations should be "readily achievable" and not conflict with safety standards.

The plaintiffs were happy with the decision, and the cruise industry, fearful of having to do costly retrofits of older ships, was relieved.

In the long term, the ruling assures greater accessibility on cruise ships serving the U.S. market. In the short term, however, passengers won't notice many changes, because most cruise ships built in the last decade have at least some accessible features, although they vary.

Because the court left open the question of how far cruise lines must go in making their ships accessible, returning the case to lower courts, what constitutes "readily achievable" changes may be decided case by case, said Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, which represents most of the cruise fleet on safety, health and governmental issues. "The question really is, where is the goal line?" he said. "How much is necessary? How many [accessible] cabins and what will be the ultimate slope of a ramp? We don't have those kinds of specifics.

"Since passage of the ADA [in 1990], the cruise industry has done a lot of modifications to make ships more accessible." Lines will continue more readily achievable changes, Crye said, such as putting in temporary ramps to provide access over barriers.

The U.S. has no rules addressing access for disabled travelers aboard cruise ships, although proposals have been in the works since 1998 and a draft of guidelines is under discussion.

It will probably be more than two years before accessibility specifics are set. The U.S. Access Board, the federal agency that develops accessibility design criteria, issued proposed guidelines late last year, and a public hearing is set for July 25 in Washington, D.C. The public can send comments through July 28. Information is available at http://www.access-board.gov — on the left side under Transportation, click on Passenger Vessels — and by phone at (202) 272-0012.

Among the board's proposals:

All public restrooms must be accessible. (On older ships, unisex accessible toilets would suffice.)

Pools must have lifts or sloped entry.

Public lounges must have wheelchair spaces with viewing angles similar to those for able-bodied spectators.

The number of accessible cabins would vary with the size of the ship. On vessels with 501 to 1,000 cabins, 3%, or a maximum of 30 cabins, would have to be accessible. Of those, 1% would have to have roll-in showers.

Ships with more than 1,000 cabins would be required to have 30 disabled-access cabins, with two additional rooms for every 100 cabins above 1,000.

Although all major lines have at least some accessible cabins, the numbers vary. Carnival Cruise Lines has 16 to 30 cabins on each of its 20 ships. Most other lines have four to 28 per ship. On its ships, Princess Cruises, which has won awards for its accessibility efforts, has special gangways to ease wheelchair access, lifts to provide access to pools and accessible tenders (small boats to ferry passengers ashore).

Holland America Line has wheelchair-accessible tenders on 10 ships and pool lifts on five; all its public rooms are accessible. Royal Caribbean International has lifts for pools and hot tubs, and accessible tenders.

In 1998 and '99, however, when Spector, Hollenbeck and Peters, who has since died, sailed on two Norwegian Cruise Line ships built in the 1970s and '80s, they faced many obstacles. (The ships have since left Norwegian's fleet.)

They said they were charged higher fares for cabins marketed as accessible and that the rooms had major physical barriers. None of the ships' public restrooms was accessible, they said, and they couldn't use the pools or get off the ships at some ports. They also had to sign a medical liability waiver that was not required of other passengers.

Spector, who lives in Houston, said his cabin had about a foot-high step into the bathroom, a 6-inch rise into the shower and little maneuvering room for his electric scooter. "You might as well have put a sign, 'Out of Service,' on it," he said.

"Every ship should be able to meet the basic needs — to get into a restroom and to use the shower and not feel you're a contestant on 'Fear Factor,' " he said. "We were never asking anything major to be done. All the modifications we were asking were minor — a ramp here or change the hinges so a door swings the right way.

"Cruises are a perfect vacation for someone in a wheelchair if [the ship is] accessible, because everything is right there together — the hotel room, dining, entertainment. It's not far to get to anything."

Today, accessible cabins are priced like other cabins within the same fare category.

Norwegian's newer ships have better access for disabled passengers. Norwegian Cruise Line America's newly built Pride of America has 1,069 cabins, and 22 of those are wheelchair-accessible with roll-in bathrooms and showers with wall-mounted collapsible stools. Forty additional cabins have doorbell, phone and emergency lights for hearing-impaired cruisers. The ship has six dedicated wheelchair positions in the main lounge, 11 wheelchair-accessible public restrooms, accessible rooms in the spa and electric hoists for the pools and hot tubs, according to the line.

Hollenbeck, of Clarksville, Tenn., called the ruling "a gigantic step for millions of Americans."

"It's not just about disabilities — it's about safety," she added. "I don't believe there's any [modifications for the disabled traveler] that aren't readily achievable. The cruise lines can well afford it."

Mary Lu Abbott welcomes comments and suggestions but cannot respond individually to letters. She can be reached at cruisecolumn@aol.com. Cruise News appears once a month.