RESTAURANT WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY

This study was designed to determine the compliance of restaurants to the wheelchair accessibility standards set forth in the Uniform Federa l Accessibility Standards The standards that were operationalized in t his study are also found in Title III of the American With Disabilitie s Act of 1990 The data were collected at 120 sites in three midwestern states For one who uses a wheelchair, parking the car is often an obs tacle to eating out. Only 53% of the restaurants surveyed provide hand icapped parking. Entering the building may also be a problem. Of the r estaurants that required a ramp, only 66% provided them. Inside the re staurant, the key problems were accessible rest-rooms and the height o f tables. The study provided comparisons between restaurants in rural and urban settings, as well as comparisons between conventional restau rants and fast food restaurants. No notable differences emerged for th ese comparisons.