New Disability Regs Limit Slope of Mini Golf Holes, Admit Mini Horses as Guide Animals

CNS News ^ | 6/26/2012 | Elizabeth Harrington

[JohnKinAK]

New Disability Regs Limit Slope of Mini Golf Holes, Require Businesses to Admit Mini Horses as Guide Animals

Although the Justice Department has extended the deadline for America’s hotels to comply with regulations regarding handicap access to swimming pools, new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines are already being applied at miniature golf courses, driving ranges, amusement parks, shooting ranges and saunas.

Among the provisions in the "Revised ADA Standards for Accessible Design," which went into effect on March 15, is one requiring businesses to allow miniature horses on their premises as guide animals for the disabled. Another limits the height of slopes on miniature golf holes.

“The new standards, for the first time, include requirements for judicial facilities, detention and correctional facilities, and recreational facilities,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said during a conference in Baltimore on June 7.

“We expect the implementation of these accessibility standards to open up doors for full participation in both the responsibilities, such as jury duty, and the benefits, such as playing at city parks, of civic life for people with disabilities,” he said.

The 2010 ADA standards for Accessible Design require that at least 50 percent of golf holes on miniature golf courses be “accessible” – with a ground space that is “48 inches minimum by 60 inches minimum with slopes not steeper than 1:48 at the start of play.”

[yldstrk]

what the heck is a mini horse?

[OldNavyVet]

"Revised ADA Standards for Accessible Design," which went into effect on March 15"

I'd like to know when this law was passed.

[OldNavyVet]

"Revised ADA Standards for Accessible Design," which went into effect on March 15"

I'd like to know when this law was passed.

[cripplecreek]

Seems like the free market could have dealt with this without regulations. If there was a great demand for handicapped aces-sable mini golf, somebody would have made a fortune.

[dayglored]

Is this satire? Semi-news?

Please, tell me this isn't real. What's next... handicap-accessible Formula-1 racecars, with a passenger seat for the mini-horse?

If this article IS real, Mr. Semmens your services are requested.

[goseminoles]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/gamestop-hates-mini-horses-and-disabled-people?s=mobile

[driftdiver]

Next in, sand traps on golf courses will have to be wheelchair accessible.

[1forall]

What about my seeing-eye rhinoceros? I would like a provision for him so I can shop at my favorite fine china distributor.

[KarlInOhio]

The 2010 ADA standards for Accessible Design require that at least 50 percent of golf holes on miniature golf courses be “accessible” – with a ground space that is “48 inches minimum by 60 inches minimum with slopes not steeper than 1:48 at the start of play.”

Can you have a spectacular set of 36 climbing and falling miniature golf holes, with a single flat "green" with 36 holes set in it to get to the 50% limit? Or does the ADA say they have to be just as good as the non-accessible holes.

[driftdiver]

too far?! its not gone far enough. I have a elephant which has been trained as a guide. Do you know how many times I’m refused entry just because my elephant is too large or some such nonsense.

[KarlInOhio]

Can I bring my seeing eye pot belly pig to the local halal grocer? Or does one perpetually offended group take priority over another?

[microgood]

A person with a disability is defined by the ADA as, “a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.”

This definitely applies to the people who want to allow the miniature horses - they are clearly mentally impaired. Mental impairment should be allowed, but these people should be barred from making any regulations.

[goseminoles]

Actually, the mini-horse is kinda cute. Just like a big dog..

[laweeks]

Slope of Mini Golf Holes, Admit Mini Horses as Guide Animals

Yeah, I was surprised as anybody to have found these mandates in our Constitution. How could I have missed them?

They were right next to abortion, penumbra, privacy, 3 gallons per flush, 60 watt light bulbs, and other Founding Father principles that were emphasized in our Constitution.

[BipolarBob]

Can I bring my seeing eye pot belly pig to the local halal grocer? Or does one perpetually offended group take priority over another?

Try a Muslim mosque instead. Have it video graphed for you. Find a good lawyer.

[Jack Hydrazine]

The revised ADA standards went into effect on 15 March 2011.