For Immediate Release: August 9, 2012 Media Contacts: Chris Hilderbrant, 585-267-0343 Stephanie Woodward, 585-269-9184

Disability Activists Secure Agreement from RIT President After Protesting Local Hotel's Resistance to Equal Access
Rochester, NY In response to national efforts by the hotel industry to block full accessibility to swimming pools for Americans with disabilities, local disability rights activists took action today to protest against a local member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA). The protest was coordinated by Rochester ADAPT, in collaboration with disability rights activists across the nation. The action took place in Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) President Bill Destler's office, and was focused on the RIT Inn & Conference Centers failure to give a firm commitment to make its swimming pools accessible to people with disabilities. After making the group's grievances clear and after a very constructive conversation with President Destler, the group of disability rights activists secured a firm commitment that the RIT Inn & Conference Center has ordered permanent lifts for its pool, and that the lifts will be installed immediately after they arrive on campus. RIT will also ask the manager of the inn to examine AH&LA's role in resisting the installation of permanent lifts in pools across the country, and to examine the inn's relationship with AH&LA. On September 15, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice published updated Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. The regulations required pools operated by hotels and other public entities to become accessible by March 15, 2012, unless to do so would not be readily achievable. As the implementation deadline approached earlier this year, the hotel industry and its lobbyists at the AH&LA fought hard to extend the deadline, therefore prolonging pool access for Americans with disabilities. The Department of Justice has extended the deadline to January 31, 2013. Despite this extension, the hotel industry continues to fight against full access to pools for people with disabilities. In July, disability rights activists across the nation began a boycott of hotels and chains which do not have pools with permanent lifts that make pools fully accessible to all paying guests. Today's action in Rochester is the first local direct action in the nation against a hotel with an inaccessible pool, though more are planned. "This is about more than pools," said Bruce Darling, organizer with ADAPT. "This action marks the beginning of the next phase in a campaign to protect the ADA. Hotels can expect this to be a guerilla campaign. They wont know where we are going, but theyll definitely know when were there!" The RIT Inn & Conference Center is represented on the board of AH&LA and, given that RIT is the home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, ADAPT and its allies across the country have asked RIT to take a leadership role in fighting for equal access to hotel facilities for all Americans, regardless of physical ability. ### ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom. See more about ADAPT and ADAPT's work at www.adapt.org.