The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The purpose of ADA is to assure civil rights to qualified people with disabilities.

Customers Are Our Business

Qualified individuals with disabilities are persons who meet the essential eligibility requirements for a public service, with or without the need for modifications to make that service accessible. About 43,000,000 Americans have one or more physical or mental disability, with this number increasing as the U.S. population grows older. Some of your customers may have disabilities and may need assistance during shopping, browsing, or even emergencies, and just as many of your customers may have to travel to get to the location of your business or organization, people with disabilities also travel to work, school, museums, medical facilities, movies, etc.

ADA & Customer Service

• See the person who has the disability as a person, not as a disability.
• Don’t talk down to or pity the person with the disability.
• Speak directly to the customer who has the disability, not to a companion or an interpreter.
• Treat adults as adults.
• Be considerate, it may take extra time for the customer with the disability to say or do some things.
• If you offer your assistance and the customer refuses, don’t insist. If your offer of help is accepted however, ask how you can best help and then follow directions. Do not take over.
• Just relax. Don’t be overly concerned about using common expressions like, “See you later.”

“People First” Terminology

The best and most polite thing to do is to place the person before the disability. Avoid referring to people by their disability, for instance referring to someone as an epileptic or a blind person. A person is not a condition. So what would be the correct thing to say? We can say that there is a person with epilepsy or a person who is blind. By the same token, people are not “wheelchair-bound” or “confined” to wheelchairs. Remember, they use their wheelchairs to increase their ability to get around and enhance their freedom. The right thing to say would be a “wheelchair user” or “a person that uses a wheelchair.”