You're listening to the Disability Law Lowdown podcast, show number 59.
Jacquie Brennan: Hi, this is Jacquie Brennan. Today’s podcast show is about ticketing and the ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act was originally passed in 1990 and the ADA Amendments Act was passed in 2008, and it was of course the first comprehensive civil rights legislation for individuals with disabilities. The Department of Justice issued new implementing regulations in 2010. Now ticketing, and I feel I should stop here and say when I am talking about ticketing, I mean buying tickets to things and the things that are around that concept of purchasing tickets. I don’t mean like the police coming out and writing tickets for ADA violations. That’s, as you probably know, under the ADA there is no sort of police enforcement of that. It's not a criminal activity if you violate the ADA and so it’s taken care of in civil courts. There are no ADA tickets being written out there. But ticketing, that is buying tickets and all the things that go with that. Ticketing was not addressed specifically in the ADA or in its implementing regulations before the 2010 regulations were issued by the Department of Justice. Entities that sell tickets were always covered by the ADA since the very beginning, but, there was just no specific guidance for the myriad situations related to ticketing. All that changed when the DOJ issued ticketing regulations on September 15th 2010. If you are interested you can find them at 28 CFR section 36.302F and 28CFR section 35.138.
So the general requirements are that an entity that sells tickets for a single event or a series of events has to modify its policies practices and procedures to ensure that individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity to purchase tickets for accessible seating. So they have to be able to purchase those tickets for accessible seating during the same hours that other people can buy tickets, during the same stages of ticket sales including pre-sales, promotions, lotteries, wait lists, and general sales through the same methods of distribution. You can’t be required to come down to buy to a ticket office to buy your tickets if you want accessible seats, but, everybody else can get their tickets on the computer and print them at home. There must be the same types and numbers of ticketing sales outlets, including telephone service, in person ticket sales at the facility, or third party ticketing services as other patrons and you have to be able to buy your tickets under the same terms and conditions as other tickets sold for the same event or series of events. Accessible seating is defined as wheelchair spaces and companion seats that comply with sections 221 and 802 of the 2010 standards for accessible design, along with other seats required to be offered for sale to the individual with disability as outlined in the regulations.
So if a ticketing entity is asked it must inform individuals with disabilities their companions and third parties purchasing tickets for accessible seating’s for individuals with disabilities of the locations of all unsold or otherwise available accessible seating for any ticketed event at the facility. They must identify and describe the features of available accessible seating in enough detail to reasonably permit a person with a disability to decide independently whether a given accessible seating location meets his or her accessibility needs and provide materials like seating maps, plans, brochures, pricing charts and other information that identify accessible seating with the same text or visual representations as other seats if such materials are provided to the general public. The price for tickets for accessible seating must not be higher than the price of other tickets in the same seating section for the same event. Tickets for accessible seating must be made at all price levels for every event. If tickets for accessible seating at a particular price level cannot be provided because barrier removal in an existing facility is not readily achievable, then the percentage of tickets for accessible seating that should have been available at that price level if it weren’t for the barriers must be offered for purchase at that price level in a nearby or similar accessible location. The percentage is determined by the ratio of the number of tickets at that price level to the total number of tickets in the assembly area. For each ticket purchased by or for an individual with a disability, an entity must make available for purchase three additional tickets for seats in the same row that are contiguous with the wheel chair space, provided that at the time of purchase there are three such seats available. Such seats may include wheelchair spaces. If patrons are allowed to purchase at least four tickets and there are fewer than three such additional contiguous seat tickets available for purchase, an entity must offer the next highest number of such seat tickets available for purchase and must make up the difference by offering tickets for sale for seats that was close as possible to the accessible seats. If ticket sales are limited for a particular event or venue to fewer than four seats per patron, then the obligation is to offer as many seats to patrons with disabilities including the ticket for the wheelchair space as would be offered to patrons without disabilities. If patrons are allowed to purchase more than four tickets, then patrons with disabilities must be allowed to purchase up to the same number of tickets including the ticket for the wheelchair space.
If a group includes one or more people who need to use accessible seating because of a mobility disability or because the disability requires the use of accessible features that are provided in accessible seating, the group must be placed in a seating area with accessible seating so that if possible the group can sit together. If it’s necessary to divide the group, it should be divided so that the people in the group who use wheelchairs are not isolated from the rest of the group. Tickets for accessible seating may be released for sale in certain limited circumstances. Unsold tickets for accessible seating may be released only under these following circumstances. When all non-accessible tickets are sold, excluding luxury boxes, club boxes, or suites, but, all other non-accessible tickets must already have been sold before accessible seating can be released for sale. Or when all non-accessible tickets in a designated seating area have been sold and the tickets for accessible seating are being released in the same designated area or when all non-accessible tickets in a designated price category have been sold and the tickets for accessible seating are being released within that same designated price category. A facility is not required to release tickets for accessible seating to individuals without disabilities.
When series of events tickets are sold out and the entity releases and sells accessible seating to people without disabilities for a series of events, a process must be established that prevents the automatic reassignment of accessible seating to such ticket holders for future seasons, future years, or future series so that individuals with disabilities who require the features of accessible seating and who become newly eligible to purchase tickets when those series of events tickets are available for purchase have an opportunity to do so. When series of event tickets with an ownership right in an accessible seating area are forfeited or otherwise returned to an entity, reasonable modifications in policies practices or procedures must be made in order to afford individuals with mobility disabilities or individuals with disabilities that require the features of accessible seating the chance to purchase such tickets in accessible seating areas. Individuals with disabilities who hold tickets for accessible seating must be permitted to transfer tickets to third parties under the same terms and conditions and to the same extent as other spectators holding the same type of tickets whether they are for a single event or a series of events. And then, in terms of the secondary ticket market, policies, practices or procedures must be modified to ensure that people with disabilities may use a ticket acquired in a secondary ticket market under the same terms and conditions as other individuals who hold the ticket acquired in a secondary ticket market for the same event or series of events. If a person with a disability acquires a ticket or series of tickets to an inaccessible seat through the secondary market, reasonable modifications to policies, practices or procedures must be made to allow the individual to exchange his ticket for one to an accessible seat in a comparable location if accessible seating is vacant at the time the individual presents the ticket to the proper accommodation.
In terms of prevention of fraud, individuals with disabilities may not be required to provide any proof of disability, such as a doctor’s note. For the sale of single event tickets its permissible to ask whether the person purchasing the tickets for accessible seating has either a mobility disability or a disability that requires the use of accessible features that are provided in the accessible seating or is purchasing the tickets for a person who either has a mobility disability or a disability that requires the use of accessible features that are provided in accessible seating. That’s all they can ask for the single event tickets.
For series of event tickets, it’s permissible to ask the person purchasing the tickets for accessible seating to attest in writing that the accessible seating is for a person who has a mobility disability or a disability that requires the use of accessible features that are provided in accessible seating. An investigation may take place regarding the potential misuse of accessible seating when there is good cause to believe that such seating has been purchased fraudulently.
The Department of Justice really hopes that these new regulations will clear up some of the misconceptions and the problems that we’ve had with ticketing for accessible seating in the past. If you have any questions please call your ADA Center at 1-800-949-4232.
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The Southwest and Rocky Mountain ADA Centers are part of a program of Independent Living Research Utilization at TIRR - Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. If you have questions about disability law or would like to request materials or training, please call 1-800-949-4232.
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