Titles III and IV and V of ADA

Overview
Titles III, IV, and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act address public accommodations and commercial facilities, telecommunications, and several general provisions. Tennessee cities are generally governed by:

Title I for employment and employee accommodation.

Title II for city services, programs, activities, facilities, communications, and public-facing digital services.

Titles III, IV, and V still matter because cities interact with private businesses, telecommunications systems, contractors, public-accommodation facilities, and ADA retaliation protections.

Title III: Public Accommodations
Title III prohibits disability discrimination by private entities that own, lease, lease to, or operate places of public accommodation. It also establishes accessibility requirements for commercial facilities.

Examples of places of public accommodation include:

• Restaurants, cafeterias, and bars.
• Hotels, motels, and other places of lodging.
• Theaters, concert halls, stadiums, and convention centers.
• Retail stores, shopping centers, service establishments, dry cleaners, and laundromats.
• Banks, professional offices, pharmacies, health-care providers, hospitals, and other service providers.
• Museums, libraries, galleries, parks, zoos, amusement parks, and recreation facilities.
• Private schools, day-care centers, and other educational or social-service establishments.
• Gyms, health spas, bowling alleys, golf courses, and similar places of exercise or recreation.

Title III applies to private businesses and nonprofit entities that are generally open to the public and fall within the ADA’s listed categories. It also applies to privately owned commercial facilities, such as factories, warehouses, and office buildings, for new construction and alteration standards.

Religious organizations and entities controlled by religious organizations, including places of worship, are generally exempt from Title III. Private clubs are also generally exempt unless their facilities are made available to the public or otherwise lose private-club status.

State and local governments are not governed by Title III when providing their own services, programs, and activities. A city’s public meetings, parks, utility services, police services, permitting, public facilities, websites, and other city operations are governed by Title II and 28 C.F.R. Part 35.

A city can still encounter Title III issues when it leases space from, contracts with, sponsors activities at, or partners with a private place of public accommodation. The city should address ADA responsibilities in leases, contracts, event agreements, and vendor specifications.

Title IV: Telecommunications
Title IV amended the Communications Act of 1934 and requires telecommunications relay services (TRS) so that individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or who have speech disabilities can communicate by telephone in a manner functionally equivalent to voice telephone users.

Relay services may include traditional text-based relay, video relay service, captioned telephone service, Internet-based relay, and other FCC-approved relay technologies. A city should accept and respond to relay calls in the same manner that it responds to other telephone calls.

Title IV also includes closed-captioning requirements for federally funded public-service announcements. Captioning and related accessibility requirements for television programming and equipment are regulated principally by the Federal Communications Commission.

Equipment designed to receive or play back video programming using a screen of 13 inches or more generally must be capable of decoding or displaying closed captions when technically feasible. Equipment with smaller screens must be capable of displaying captions when achievable. This is principally an obligation for covered equipment manufacturers and providers, rather than a general city obligation.

For city operations, Title II’s effective-communication obligations are usually more directly important. A city should ensure that public-facing video, emergency information, public meetings, and digital communications are accessible through appropriate captioning, interpreters, accessible documents, and other auxiliary aids and services when needed.

Title V: General Provisions
Title V contains ADA provisions that apply across the other titles. Of particular importance to cities are the provisions that:

• Prohibit retaliation against a person who opposes disability discrimination, requests accommodation, files an ADA complaint, participates in an investigation, or assists another person in exercising ADA rights.
• Prohibit coercion, intimidation, threats, or interference with an individual’s ADA rights.
• Address attorney’s fees and litigation expenses.
• Preserve state and local laws that provide equal or greater protection for individuals with disabilities.
• Address the relationship of the ADA to other federal laws, insurance, drug and alcohol testing, and other general matters.

A city should not retaliate against an employee, applicant, resident, customer, program participant, witness, or other individual because the person requested an accommodation, sought an auxiliary aid, complained about accessibility, filed a charge, participated in an investigation, or assisted another person in asserting ADA rights.

Avoid a broad statement that Title V “covers state immunity.” Although the ADA contains provisions addressing state immunity, the availability of particular remedies against a state entity depends on the ADA title involved, the constitutional basis for the claim, and evolving federal case law. That issue is generally not necessary in a practical municipal ADA guide.

Statutory anchors

• ADA Title III, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12181–12189; 28 C.F.R. Part 36.
• ADA Title IV, 47 U.S.C. § 225.
• ADA Title V, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12201–12213.
• FCC closed-captioning equipment requirements, including 47 C.F.R. Part 79.