From Peter S. Raimondi:
I am an 88 year old polio survivor. Since I was 17 years of age, I have fought for the rights of the disabled and elderly.
In the last 10 years or so with the help of Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, I have gotten approximately 100 restaurants to supply chairs with arms so that the disabled and elderly can easily sit and rise from a seated position. We the disabled and elderly must climb mountains every day of our lives.
I need the public’s help in getting an intolerable condition that exist in our malls and department stores corrected. Under the public accommodations law of the State of Maryland reasonable accommodations must be provided to all citizens. Yet not one mall or department store in Maryland provides battery operated shopping carts that you find in grocery stores. Most malls and department stores have marble floors which are very slippery when that are wet, which makes it extremely difficult for the disabled and elderly to walk if using crutches or walkers or canes Many states furnish these battery operated carts for their disabled and elderly customers. Not so in the State of Maryland. The Maryland Public Accommodations law seems to have two sets of rules. One for the small business and one for the large department stores and malls such as General growth properties, White Marsh Mall, Harford Mall and every mall in Maryland. Those department stores that do no provide battery operated shopping carts in Maryland are Maces, Sears, JC.Penny, Ross, Bed bath and beyond, plus many others.
The U.S. Department of Justice states that if given a level playing field the disabled and elderly would out spend all other groups of people that Madison Avenue directs their advertisement too. Most of these department stores and malls provide wheelchairs. Try pushing yourself around a 2 mile department store or mall. Where do you put your packages?
Help us to climb those mountains that we face each day. Let your voice be heard in support of getting battery operated carts in our shopping center and our department store to make them even better than they already are by improving their accessibility.
Peter S. Raimondi
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
“Yet not one mall or department store in Maryland provides battery operated shopping carts that you find in grocery stores.” – WalMart is a department store. They DO provide battery operated shopping carts for disabled and elderly. They let ANYONE ride around in them, which I don’t like…….
No inforcement of Handi capped placards as well.
As is Target, which also provides motorized shopping carts. Perhaps the complainant should rephrase his complaint to be against malls such as White Marsh or Harford. Then the complaint would be valid.
Very, very good point……
I couldn’t imagine the logistical nightmare of scooters all over a mall in varying states of battery charge. If going to the mall is that important get a hoveround or a wheel chair of your own.
Think before writing !
Most disabled, like myself, can not afford an electric scooter of their own.
Remember ! When owning an Electric Scooter, the owner must purchase a vehicle big enough to carry it! You’re talking of shelling out roughly $ 30,000 and up for one.
That is a lot of money just to shop just a few times per year!
It makes the cost of a purchase so expensive it is rediculous to contimplate scooter ownership just to shop at a Department store or a Mall.
I don’t understand the authors point of seeking public support for this campaign. The law is the law and any person with disabilities can easily file a complaint if they haven’t been reasonably accommodated. Please clarify if the correct process was followed and the exact response received.
God forbid anyone should seek support or commiseration of any kind for a disability, physical or otherwise, here in “Lord of the Flies County”.
Thanks for the sanctimony but you are missing the point. The author claims many successes in working through the system. I applaud this approach and the law. He makes mention of some ruling based on a separate set of standards that now needs to be fixed. What I want is a reference to this ruling that this time caused his request to fail such that we now need a new law. If I misunderstand and he is not seeking support for a new law, I don’t get the point of this letter. I’m happy to help but truly don’t understand what has failed to allow this situation.
You got that right, Billy Jack. Wow! Can you say “cold-blooded”? No empathy here.
I just like getting on those motorized wheel chairs to pop a wheelie and power brake.
I personally think that brick and mortar stores like Macy’s, J C Penney’s and Sears are hanging on by a thread to remain open at all against internet vendors. I thought that reasonable accommodation was provided by eliminating barriers for the disabled; providing curb cuts and elevators and the like. Remember all the great department stores we used to have? Hecht Company, Stewart’s, Hutzler’s and many more? I am all for helping the disabled, but I worry about causing the few remaining large retailers to give up in the face of more expenses and regulations.
“reasonable accommodation”! That is the point everybody is missing. It is not reasonable to expect a business to supply a fleet of scooters.
Maybe if there was a standard set for their use…heaven forbid the disabled person is asked to defend their use of a perk. There are doctors handing out blue parking passes because they don’t want a pissed off patient. Friends and family borrowing “mom’s” handicap pass.
Shameful, people are lazy!
Unfortunately the vast majority of “handicapped” individuals I see only suffer from their inability to stop shoving food into their gob… too stupid to realize being super morbidly obese means you need to walk further not get a handicap spot where you can zombie shuffle to a scooter.
Too all of those people that answered my comments about motorized carts in malls and department stores.
Why don’t you follow me one day and see how many mountains I have too clime.
Pete Raimondi