Date: Fri 22-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

health-Mims-hearing-impaired

Full Text:

Local Couple Targets Friendly's With Disabilities Complaints

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Heartened by a US Department of Justice ruling, a Newtown couple whose 1993

discrimination complaint wasn't successful now is targeting Friendly's

restaurants again.

In the past three weeks, Bruce and Rosine Mims have filed complaints with the

justice department's Civil Rights Division against two stores in the Friendly

Ice Cream Corporation chain. The stores, in Danbury and Wilton, failed to

provide hearing amplification devices for the hearing impaired as required

under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, according to the Mims.

Mr and Mrs Mims are members of the Persons With Disabilities Committee in

Newtown. They also design and sell amplification devices for the hearing

impaired. Mrs Mims is severely hearing disabled.

"We intend to keep visiting Friendly's restaurants and filing complaints," Mr

Mims said. "Sooner or later they are going to realize we are serious about

this."

The chain, which operates 704 restaurants, was the target of a Justice

Department investigation after complaints were received that it did not

accommodate the disabled. In May, Friendly's agreed to provide handicapped

accommodations over the next six years to assist persons who are blind or

physically disabled. The firm also agreed to pay a $50,000 fine to the US

Treasury.

Mr and Mrs Mims had filed a complaint with the justice department in 1993,

alleging that the assistant manager of the Friendly's store in Cromwell had

denied Rosine Mims' request that he answer, in writing, her questions about

the menu's senior citizen breakfasts. The justice department informed the Mims

in 1995 that it had decided not to act on their complaint.

"The hearing disabled are often overlooked even though they number 28 million

and are the major group among the 59,000 variously disabled persons in the

United States," Mr Mims said.

In the complaints filed against the Danbury store on July 28 and the Wilton

store this week, Mr Mims requested that "a court order be issued requiring

each restaurant to have at least one hearing amplifier at the cashier's stand

and others wall-mounted to be accessible to every five booths or tables."

Such public-use hearing amplifiers are available commercially without "undue

burden," he said.

Mr Mims asked that the corporation be assessed monetary damages of $100,000,

to be paid to the treasury, as specified under the ADA law for a second

offense and for each subsequent offense.

"We're going to go out on Sundays, find Friendly's stores and file complaints

until they start paying attention to us," Mr Mims said.