Summary of Comment: For the vast majority of persons with mobility disabilities, an accessible golf car is necessary to obtain the full and equal access to a golf course that is required by the ADA. Accessible golf cars are a great example of publicly available assistive technology that increases recreational opportunities for people with disabilities. Accessible golf cars are as safe as regular golf cars and cause less damage to the golf course than standard golf cars, particularly on the course’s tees, fairways and greens. It is far more reasonable to have golf courses provide accessible golf cars to golfers with mobility disabilities than to expect golfers to purchase their own golf cars and transport them by trailer to each golf course they wish to play. People without disabilities are not expected to bring their own golf carts, why should persons with disabilities? At least two accessible golf cars should be provided at each 18-hole golf course so that more than one person with a disability can play the course at any given time.

Comment: Affirmatively requiring in the Department’s regulations that golf courses provide accessible golf cars would have a number of benefits, including the avoidance of piecemeal and costly litigation. A specific regulatory provision would also avoid confusion among golf course owners, operators, and the public regarding whether or not golf courses are required to provide accessible golf cars.

We agree with the Department’s position that the express language of the ADA, and the Department’s existing regulations requiring modifications in policies, practices and procedures (28 CFR 36.302) and barrier removal (28 CFR 36.304) squarely covers the issue. As the Department notes in its NPRM, “[I]f a person with a disability does not have full and equal access to a covered entity’s services because of the lack of accessible equipment, the entity must provide that equipment, unless doing so would be a fundamental alteration or would not be readily achievable.”

Within the ADA’s existing regulatory framework, a District Court in the Northern District of California has already concluded that failing to provide accessible golf cars at Marriott-operated golf facilities was discriminatory under the ADA. Celano et. al. v. Marriott Intern. Inc., 2008 WL 239306 (N.D.Cal.2008). The court held that providing accessible cars was “reasonable” and “necessary” for the plaintiffs in that case, and that failing to provide accessible golf cars for mobility impaired golfers put those golfers in a distinctly unequal situation as compared to their non-mobility-impaired counterparts.

The Department of Interior (“DOI”) has also stated that public entity golf courses must make accessible golf cars available for rental at public golf courses unless it can be demonstrated that doing so would change the fundamental nature of the game of golf. The DOI has suggested that it is an acceptable guide for a golf facility to provide as many accessible golf cars as the minimum number of accessible parking spaces required by the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessible Guidelines.

Finally, as noted by the Department in the NPRM, the Department of Defense agrees it has a legal obligation to provide two accessible golf cars at each of the 174 courses it operates. See U.S. Dept. of Defense, Report to Congress: Access of Disabled Persons to Morale, Recreation, and Welfare (MRW) Facilities and Activities (Sept. 25, 2007).