Title III, in plain English

ADA Accessibility Guide

What the law requires, where it says it, how to check it yourself, and what to do when it fails. Search it like you'd ask me.

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Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act covers places open to the public: hotels, restaurants, stores, parking lots, medical offices, hotel shuttles. Nobody inspects these places for you. The law gets enforced when a person with a disability documents a problem and pushes, sometimes with a lawyer, sometimes with a complaint to the Department of Justice.

I use a wheelchair, and I measure this stuff for a living now. This guide tells you what the standard actually says, where it says it, how to check it yourself, and what to do when it fails. It is not legal advice. It is the sheet I wish I'd had the first time a hotel told me their room was "ADA."

Before anything else

Document it now. Photos and video with the date, the address, the room number, the sign, the employee's name if you talked to one. A tape measure in the frame makes a photo evidence. A door force gauge costs about $30 and settles arguments.

Then ask for a manager, calmly, on camera if you can. Then decide what to do next. The "What to do" part of each entry below walks through the options.

The three tools I carry

A door force gauge for doors, an angle meter for ramps and parking slopes, and a tape measure for everything else. They fit in a wheelchair bag.

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Ask a question or type a topic, like "hotel room," "bathroom," "parking," "elevator" or "service dog"

Nothing matched that. Try a simpler word (door, toilet, parking, shuttle, counter, dog, hotel, pool, elevator), or email me the question and I'll add it.

Sources: the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (section numbers cited above), the Department of Justice Title III regulation at 28 CFR Part 36, the Department of Transportation vehicle rules at 49 CFR Parts 37 and 38, and the Air Carrier Access Act rules at 14 CFR Part 382. Standards change and local codes can be stricter, so verify before you file anything. Last reviewed October 2026.