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Always On Time Transportation is a non-emergency service that specializes in wheelchair and ambulatory transportation to hospitals, doctor appointments, airports etc.

By Howard Pankratz

The Denver Post

U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel ruled today that the center front entrances of the Hollister stores at Park Meadows Mall and the Orchard Town Center mall violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ruling followed extensive litigation dating back to 2009 when five people who use wheelchairs and the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition filed a lawsuit claiming they were discriminated against because Hollister Co. stores had porch-like entrances with steps that prevented them getting through the main entrance.

Hollister, a brand by Abercrombie & Fitch Co., said it didn’t violate the ADA because it had side entrances where people using wheelchairs could enter.

Specifically the company said it provides accessible entry doors at the front of the stores in the form of automatics doors located in close proximity to the porch. In addition, it claimed that these entry doors are not “segregated” or separate and are used by the general public.

They are to be used without regard to whether an individual uses a wheelchair or has other restrictions, said Hollister.

Daniel noted that both Hollister stores were built after the passage of the ADA. Although one store is enclosed at Park Meadows and the other is an outdoor mall — Orchard Town Center – the design of the front of the stores is the same with a raised porch-like platform that is two steps above ground level.

On each side of the “porch structure” are two doors at ground level.

Daniel noted that the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the case in which the United States took the position that because the stores were built after the ADA took effect, both the design and the construction of the entrances violate the purpose and and the letter of the ADA. It does so, said the DOJ, by unnecessarily relegating people who use wheelchairs to separate and objectively different entrances than those available for other people.

Daniel said Hollister took a “micro view” which allowed them to comply with details in the regulations without taking the aims of the ADA to heart and fulfill its “overarching aims.

“To say that the issue of which door is used by the majority of customers is a genuine issue of fact ignores the obvious,” said the federal judge.

“Looking at the photographs attached to the plaintiff’s motion, it was not even clear that there are doors on either side of the porch.”

In conclusion, Daniel said that Hollister unnecessarily created a design for their brand that excludes people using wheelchairs from full enjoyment of the aesthetic for that brand. The steps to the center entrance are a legally unacceptable piece of branding” and violated Title III of the ADA.

Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.