Is the Starbucks experience having a customer face a wall? The ADA says no.

Is the Starbucks experience having a customer face a wall? The ADA says no.

A Starbucks in California had indoor tables but those accessible to wheelchair users faced the wall, not the interior bustling premises. How can one people watch and be part of the Starbucks community if one has to sit facing the wall?

A federal district court (Hon. Lucy H. Koh) recently held that Starbucks Corporation violated the ADA by denying Robert Kalani the welcoming coffeehouse environment in which he can enjoy the sense of community offered to nondisabled customers. Mr. Kalani is a social guy, he likes to strike up conversations with strangers and watch the goings-on.

It does not matter that Starbucks fully complies with all the architectural and design requirements under the ADA, or that there is no statute or regulation which addresses the issue.

In sum, “the Court finds that Defendant's operational use of the interior accessible tables in the Store, which forces disabled patrons to sit with their backs to the Store, constitute discrimination under 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182(b)(1)(A)(iii) and  2182(b)(1)(B).

Kalani v. Starbucks Corp., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98543, *28 (N.D. Cal. July 28, 2015)