Require Hotels to provide a lift for wheelchair users to access inaccessible luxury beds

Require Hotels to provide a lift for wheelchair users to access inaccessible luxury beds
Why this petition matters

Imagine this: You just checked into an expensive hotel and are given your key. You are tired from traveling and cannot wait to get into a clean luxury hotel bed. You open the door and suddenly notice your bed is 10 feet off the ground and there is no ladder. You are bewildered and wonder how you will get into bed to sleep. That scenario is commonplace for those of us who are mobility impaired. Hotels have adopted luxury bedding and a 30-inch bed in a wheelchair accessible hotel room might as well be 100 feet off the ground for those of that use wheelchairs. You call the desk and are told little can be done. The hotel may offer to remove the frame and or box spring. Removing these heavy items is difficult for hotel staff and ultimately make the bed too low to get out of easily. Myself and other wheelchair users have been dealing with this unequal access for years travelling to hotels. Like many problems I have had to adapt to, I decided to find a way to adapt to this problem. I designed a bedside lift, which I named THE BED PHRAME LIFT, that is a safe and reliable way to allow the mobility impaired to travel anywhere confidently.
My name is Anthony Amorello. I have been in a wheelchair since 1973 as a result of a diving accident at age 14. Adapting to this new way of living was not easy and still isn't. Many environments are still not completely wheelchair accessible. A hotel bed in a wheelchair accessible hotel room should not be inaccessible. But they often are since luxury bedding has been adopted by hotels to increase patronage satisfaction. The advent of luxury bedding has caused bed heights in hotel rooms to increase significantly. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not have a standard for hotel bed heights in wheelchair accessible hotel rooms. Therefore, bed heights are variable. The extra inches of padding have made it virtually impossible for the mobility impaired to easily enter a bed to sleep due to the height variance between a wheelchair seat and the top of the mattress. The variance can be as great as 10 to 12 inches. The variance is different from hotel to hotel, and even within the same hotel. Currently, equal access is being denied to the mobility impaired. But this can be easily remedied. Hotels need to be required to provide a solution such as a portable bedside lift. I have created a portable lift that hotels can offer on demand like a roll away bed. They can offer this device and even charge a nominal fee for its use if so desired.
This lift can be stored at hotels and rolled to a room upon request and placed adjacent to the luxury bed. The lift raises the wheelchair user to a point where the seat is level with the mattress top. Hotels could continue their marketing of luxury bedding and still offer equal access to sleeping in a hotel bed. Ironically, lifts are offered for the mobility impaired to enter pools and jacuzzis. However, the most important element of a hotel stay - sleeping in a hotel bed - is currently being denied in wheelchair accessible hotel rooms. The portable bedside lift is an easy solution for both the hotel industry and the mobility impaired traveler.
I am creating a petition to remedy this equal access issue. The mobility impaired need to be able to travel anywhere confidently. The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division is aware of this problem. People have been complaining for years. The American Hotel and Lodging Association also knows of this problem. They too must endorse a remedy to this widespread problem. The portable bedside lift is the easiest remedy to help make hotel beds accessible.
Please help make sleeping in a wheelchair accessible hotel room bed accessible to those of us with mobility issues. Please visit our website for further information.
Thank you
Anthony Amorello