April 12, 1999 To the Hotel and Motel Industry, Remember a little over a decade when the General Accounting Office found out that the Air Force was paying $200 for a hammer that could be found in any hardware store for $10? In this letter, you will discover the hotel and motel industry has been paying extorbitant prices for the ADA kits for making their rooms accessible to people with hearing disabilties. It's time the hotel and motel industry shed the the same shoes as the Air Force had on when they were buying household hammers for $200! Most deaf folks know me as an illustrative Deaf Activist and Advocate who always stood behind people with hearing disabilities on a broad spectrum of issues including Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and enforcement. I am so proud of the spunk I posess, the vehicles and methods I use in promoting the rights of people with hearing disabilities. This is the decent support and advocacy our community can, at the very least, expect from the so called "silent screamer" advocate. We have established a Deaf center in Santa Ana, California last summer and support services commenced on November 16, 1998 with 9 clients waiting outside the door. 34 of our clients had their rights defended to their satisfaction when we kicked the people that were trying to take their rights away. And with my own words, Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center was able to kick them hard! Highly aggressve advocacy is what Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center is all about. I presently serve at the National Association (NAD) of the Deaf's Consumer Advocacy Committee. As part of our efforts as consumer advocates, we were asked to review the materials on the Americans with Disability Act NAD has, the members of this committee were assigned different areas of the law. I was assigned to examine the materials on the hospitality industry which includes hotels and motels. With this in mind, I have decided to go deeper into this area using the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center's resources and data. One of our goals is to make business accessible to people with hearing disabilities. We have printed tens of thousands of copies of tax forms and information relating to tax deductions for access to people with disabilities and distributed them to businesses in Orange County. We used education in our attempts to make businesses inside Orange County, California more accessible to people with hearing disabilities. Despite our highly aggressive efforts to help Orange County business up to speed in accessibility to people with disabilities, many businesses in Orange County are still lagging behind in access. We have failed and we had to examine the problem thoroughly to find the root of the problem that has caused us to fail in helping hotels and motels become accessible to people with hearing disabilities. For help, we have turned to 2 of our clients at the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center who have lived in hotels and motels of Orange County in the past years. The Americans With Disabilities Act show that hotels and motels must have the following to make their rooms compliant for guests with hearing disabilities: 1) Closed Captioning in television sets. 2) Teletypewriter Device for the Deaf (TDD) and phone amplifiers. 3) Door and telephone (flashing light) notification. 4) Fire alarms with flashing light notification. Two of our clients have been living in motels in the past 24 months inside Orange County. Living separately, together they have encompassed 30 hotels and motels. They tell us that none of these hotels have TDD's or amplifiers, doorbell lights, fire alarm strobes, telephone signal lights. They only have television sets with closed captioning capabilities. I went on to inspect 20 of these motels to find they only have Closed Captioning in the television sets. Nothing else. I went on to assist these hotels by providing them with information on the ADA compliance kits that are presently available. My gratuity goes to the friendly attitudes of the hotel management who were interested in helping me to discover the cause of our difficulties in helping them make their rooms accessible to people with hearing disabilities. I went on to assist them by producing catalogs that have "ADA kits" to make their rooms fully accessible. This is what I shared with them: ________________________________ Ameriphone Kits #11 and #12 $599.00 Hearmore Options #1 $740.00 and #2 $775.00 NFSS Kit #2 $589.95 Ameritech Set #3 $647.00 Harris Communications "ADA-500" kit $617.75 and "ADA-1000" kit $712.85 All the items above were obtained from catalogs published last year and this year's catalog may have small differences in pricing. And at least, these were the prices they had last year when they offered the ADA kits to the hotel and motel industry. All of these hotels we visited already had television sets with closed captioniong technology built in them and were not a problem for these hotels to acquire. That is because it didnt cost them extra to acquire this accommodation for people with hearing disabilities. My listing is based on acquiring all the items needed to complete the ADA access requirements for guests with hearing disabilities. The pricing are, of course, different as the contents of the kits differ greatly from each other. Each kit will be different from another but the cost would basically represent how much a hotel or motel will have to spend to get all the equipment to make their rooms fully accessible to people with hearing disabilities. Many of the kits had extra things in them that were not neccessarily required for accessibility to people with hearing disabilities. When I brought this information to the management of the hotels and motels, almost all of them jumped out of their shoes when they saw the prices. No wonder the tax incentives are not working to help these hotels and motels become accessible, that is because the costs are initially high in the first place. What I discovered was a new barrier that prevents the hotels and motels from accessing the equipment needed to make their rooms accessible. This barrier is the cost itself. Our failures to help the hotel and motels become compliant were the direct result of the pricing of these kits by the suppliers. In the past week the same 2 clients have decided to help and join us in our research on the costs of the items needed to make hotels accessible for guests with hearing disabilities. The 3 of us combed GTE Phone Mart, Home Depot, Home Base, Sears, Montgomery Wards, Fry's, and a number of small and large electronic and hardware stores and we also researched on refurbished TDD's. We have a surprise! We were able to find parts of the kits in many different stores and some parts can be manufactured by yourself at a fraction of the cost. Another surprise is we have tallied the total cost for parts to complete ADA accessibility for guests with hearing disabilities to be about $197.00 or even less!! This is no joke. 197 clams comparing to at least 589 for the ADA kits already offered by the suppliers! These prices listed are actual retail prices as of April 1999 and they can go even further down if bought at wholesale or in greater quantities. Many hotels and motels already have wholesale purchasing capability. It's time they start using their wholesale buying power to make their rooms more accessible to people with hearing disabilities. The parts and their retail prices: (All Parts "NEW" insless stated otherwise) ============================================================================= Telephone amplifier : $10.99 ---------------------------- 1) Snap on amplifier Radio Shack #43-229 $10.99 Telephone amplifier : $0.99 ---------------------------- 1) Snap on amplifier TeleTronics #CA-31544 $0.99 at 99cents only stores. Telephone notification assembly : $17.72 ---------------------------------------- 1) Fone flasher - Radio Shack #43-177 $14.99 2) 2 to 1 Phone Jack Adapter $0.99 cents at 99cents only stores 3) Light bulb socket Eagle # 32664-27310 $1.49 Ace Hardware 4) 100 watt light bulb 25 cents at 99cents only stores Telephone notification assembly : $8.99 --------------------------------------- 1) Mini-Fone flasher $8.99 Radio Shack part 43-179 (complete) (ideal for darker rooms with telephones away from lighting) (not tested yet for effectiveness) Doorbell Notification assembly : $20.73 --------------------------------------- 1) Wireless remote switch by Lamson Home Products $17.99 at Home Base Hardware 2) Door clip for remote switch $1.00 1" by 7" bent metal strip 3) Light bulb socket Eagle # 32664-27310 $1.49 Ace Hardware 4) 100 watt light bulb 25 cents 99cents only stores Doorbell Notification assembly : $12.50 --------------------------------------- 1) Door Handle Alarm w/light LS&S Group $11.50 2) Door sign "Touch doorknob to alert guests" $1.00 Battery operated smoke detector : $74.95 ---------------------------------------- 1) 2.5 candela strobe $74.95 LS&S Group part #HI-5693 Refurbished TDD : $99.95 ------------------------ 1) Reconditioned VUphone $99.95 from Deafworks ( http://www.deafworks.com/vuphone.html ) TDD : $99.95 ------------------------ 1) Paragon TDD $99.95 soon to be offered by Deafworks. Refurbished TDD's from one supplier would sometimes come with warranties and when used sparingly as often a guest with a hearing disability would actually patronize the hotels and motels would have an estimated life of at least 3-5 years. This is excellent value toward the cost of obtaining them. Refurbished TDD's are sold at a fraction of the cost of brand new ones presently offered to the hotel and motel industry. The ony problem is that the people that are selling the refurbished TDD's have dwindled and are expected to dwindle even further in the near future. Gee no wonder why the hotels and motels would simply refuse to spend their money on ADA access and instead they would spend some money to lobby for ADA weakening laws. And also no wonder why we have had plenty of problems encouraging the hotels and motels comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA kit suppliers have decided to offer the products only at the higher possible price range. The ADA kit suppliers have created this extra barrier for the hotel and motel industry. I am really disappointed at this special brand of commercialism under the guise or pretense of helping hotels and motels comply with the law. Early last week, I shared my findings with the companies involved with manufacturing and marketing of the ADA kits and I gave them reasonable time to respond and communicate with me. A response highlighting quality, safety, and legal issues came from one respondant. Another simply demanded access to our research data. One claimed to have invented the kit idea and was stolen by others. Researching this out has brought in some interesting responses from some of the merchants we have communicated. One store employee said the reason they have their prices so high is that "they know we dont carry these things and neither does other hardware stores like, Home Depo, Home Base, Fry's, Sears and thats why their prices are so high." Researching this further after notifying the kit makers has brought some parts to my attention at even lower prices. Last Saturday when I was looking for light bulb sockets at the 99cents stores, I found that they carried telephone amplifiers. They have plenty of these on hand! I even bought one from them! There is no excuse for not offering low cost or budget versions of the ADA kits. There is no excuse creating the cost barriers to compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. We also are asking you for financial assistance for the production of these low cost kits and we will have our own Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center market them for approximately $250.00 each as part of our planned life skills education program. Our prices make the ADA kits very affordable and accessible to the hotel and motel industry. And this is part of our mission to help business to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public service agency and donations to our Deaf center is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. I know many of you will be shocked with our findings. But the kit suppliers had the means and the power to encourage the hotels and motels to comply with the ADA. And the kit suppliers did not make any attempts or show any indication of marketing low cost or 'budget' or 'economy' versions of the ADA kits comprised of used and working parts. The ADA kit suppliers have decided to offer the products ONLY at the higher possible price range. With their pricing, the kit makers kept the welcome mat to 25 million guests with hearing disabilities out of the reaches of many hotel and motel owners. Only the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center can offer the hotel and motel indistry affordable ways to make their rooms accessible to people with hearing disabilities. We will be encouraging other non profit deaf/disability organizations to follow our example. If your'e interested in helping our Deaf center help hotels and motels comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, let's talk about it. Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center c/o Richard Roehm 1001 North French Street #4 Santa Ana, California 92701-3769 Richard Roehm Deaf@activist.com ||================================================================= || DEAF WATCH Orange County, California | || Richard Roehm | || Chief Editor Internet : Deaf@activist.com | || Nesmuth@worldnet.att.net | || Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net | || DEAF WATCH ICQ : SilentKnight | || Http://www.deafwatch.com AIM : Nesmuth827 | || DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY | || Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/dwoc.htm | || ORANGE COUNTY DEAF ADVOCACY CENTER | || Http://www.deafadvocacy.com | ||================================================================= || || Deaf Watch will continue to aggressively pursue justice, fairness, || and equality for the Deaf Community as it has been doing since November || 1996. We have chosen that EDUCATION is the best way accomplish this || objective.