Hello fellow travelers. In my last entry I talked to you about traveling by bus. Now, I like to discuss the law related to traveling on the high seas.
For many people with disabilities traveling can be a difficult venture. You have to find an accessible destination, hotel, restaurant, and mode of transportation. Taking a cruise eliminates most of that work. Taking a cruise is truly a canned vacation. Once you are on the ship you don't have to worry about accommodations, food or entertainment. You don't even have to get off the ship if you don't want to, which eliminates the need to worry about accessible destinations.
However, for years there has been a question about whether foreign-flag cruise ships that dock in American ports are bound by the public accommodation section (Title III) of the Americans with Disabilities Act. That question has been addressed in several class action lawsuits launched against the cruise lines.
In 2000 the 11th circuit court heard the case of Stevens v. Premier Cruises. In that case Tammy Stevens sued Premier because they charged her an extra fee for a wheelchair accessible cabin and because, contrary to what she had been told, neither her cabin nor many of the public areas of the ship were accessible. The court found that the Americans with Disabilities Act applied to all places of public accommodation, even foreign-flagged cruise ships which dock in U.S. ports. However in the 2005 case of Spector v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came down with the opposite opinion. Finally, in an effort to resolve the conflict created by the two lower courts, the Supreme Court ruled, in a split decision, that foreign cruise lines that dock at U.S. ports must provide “better” access to handicapped people. They did not, however, define what better access meant nor did they give specific modifications that the cruise lines had to make in order to become compliant with the ADA. So it would seem that the problem will have to be resolved by future generations.
The question of accessibility on cruise ships raises several issues. The first, of course, is whether the cruise line should be permitted to discriminate against a segment of the general population. This is an important issue, if you consider that, according to a survey conducted by the travel industry in 2002, 12% of people with disabilities had taken a cruise within the past five years, as compared with 8% of the able-bodied population.
But, discrimination aside, the courts are really contending with two opposing legal viewpoints. The first, called "the law of the flag," basically says that domestic laws do not apply to foreign flagged ships. This is a matter of sovereignty and treaty. The second, called "peace of the port" says is that a ship that docks in a foreign port is bound to adhere to that country's laws. Up until now there has been no way to bridge the gap between the two points of view, leaving travelers with disabilities caught in the middle.
Next time I will look at the various cruise lines to help you decide which of them has the most accessible accommodations. Until then, happy traveling.