DOJ sues Busch Gardens parent company for rollator walker ban

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Thursday against the parent company of Sea World and Busch Gardens theme parks, claiming its ban on wheeled walkers with seats violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida launched an investigation in November into 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. 

According to a release, that investigation found that UPR’s policy banning guests with disabilities from using wheeled walkers with seats, including “rollators,” violates Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“The ADA requires equal access for people with disabilities and theme parks such as SeaWorld are no exception,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division says in the release. 

Investigators have asked for a jury trial in Orlando to determine if UPR violated the ADA, according to the complaint. Three of the company’s parks — SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens — banned the use of rollator walkers with seats in November, the DOJ complaint 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.”

The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disability by public accommodations, and requires companies like UPR and its theme parks to allow individuals with disabilities to use manually powered mobility aids, including walkers, in areas open for pedestrian use.

The Department sued UPR based on complaints from “many people” with disabilities, the release says, alleging UPR would not allow them to enter its parks with their wheeled walkers with seats. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges UPR’s policy banning wheeled walkers with seats prevented children, veterans, and other individuals with disabilities from accessing the parks. The civil complaint also alleges that UPR imposes “impermissible surcharges” on guests with disabilities in the form of rental fees and refuses to reasonably modify its policies, practices, or procedures, where necessary, to avoid discriminating against guests with disabilities.

The lawsuit seeks a court order to force UPR to stop discriminating against individuals with disabilities, to modify its policies to comply with the ADA, and to train its staff on the ADA, the release says. The lawsuit also seeks monetary damages to compensate individuals who were not allowed to use their walkers inside the parks and demands UPR pay a civil penalty “to vindicate the public’s interest in eliminating disability discrimination.”