COMPLIANCE WITH ADA By CRUISE LINESCruise Lines

I ran across a news bulletin put out by the International Council of Cruise Lines. In case you are not familar with the ICCL it is an association to which 16 cruise lines belong. It's objective seems to be to set policy for the members. The news release is a response to an ADA ruling by a federal district court. It seems at this time there are no ADA regulations for passnger accessibility.
Since the federal district court ruled ADA does apply to cruise ships, the cruise lines belonging to ICCL are on record that their members will comply with whatever regulations are established.

This has been a hang up since as far back as 1993, United States Senator Phil Gramm asked the Department of Transportation to come up with standards so that the cruise lines can comply with Title III of the ADA. As of today there are still no standards but the newer cruise ships seem to be able to accommodate a limited number of disabled. In the past we used to see two, maybe three or four disabled aboard a cruise ship. We just got back from a cruise where 28 passengers used the cruise line wheel chairs and there were a lot of passengers who had their own chairs or motorized chairs.

The problem has been that travel agents book disabled passengers on the older ships that either have one or two staterooms that may or may not be o.k., or none at all because the price of the cruise is so cheap. In going over the list of the 16 cruise lines that are members of the ICCL, a couple still use older ships that have only a small number of cabins, possibly one or two for the disabled. I have been pleading with the cruise lines that when they have their new ships built to discontinued those high side bath tubs, using stall showers would be a great improvement. My wife is disabled but she does not require a special stateroom except for the tubs. I made her a stool that can be taken apart for carrying in the suitcase.