Feds launch probe into Busch Gardens, SeaWorld for rollator walker ban

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday it is investigating whether several theme parks, including Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by banning walkers with seats.

According to a letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, the investigation centers on several complaints received from guests of United Parks & Resorts Inc., the parent company of multiple theme parks including SeaWorld, Discovery Cove and Aquatica in Orlando, as well as Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa. 

Three of the company’s parks — SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens — recently banned the use of rollator walkers with seats, the DoJ letter says, instead offering guests with disabilities the option of renting “alternative mobility aids for a surcharge” that, in some cases, were “inappropriate for their individual disabilities.”