ADA Attorney’s Complaint Rocks XL Center
MICHELLE GOLLADAY
Connecticut Law Tribune | July 3, 2013
Michelle Duprey
In 2009, New Haven lawyer Michelle M. Duprey went to see and hear Bruce Springsteen perform at Hartford’s XL Center. She heard the iconic rocker just fine. But she didn’t see much of The Boss’s legendary energetic show.
Her frustration led her to file complaints against the concert and sports arena — action that resulted in a settlement last week that should help Connecticut’s disabled sports and music fans in the future.
Duprey, who is the director of New Haven’s Department of Services for Persons with Disabilities, is a wheelchair user herself. At the XL Center, she was directed to the seating area for people with disabilities. That area is directly behind — but not very much above — the banks of seats where normal patrons sit, adjacent to the walkway that wraps around the arena.
As usual, Springsteen played for about three hours. “I was quite disappointed I didn’t get to see much of it,” Duprey said. Her view was completely obstructed, as other able-bodied rock fans stood during the entire concert.
“It’s the first time that’s ever happened to me. I’ve been to see [University of Connecticut] basketball games, where people stand up for a couple of minutes and then sit down,” said Duprey. “At this concert, I spent most of the time looking at the back of two young guys in front of me.”
At one point, she scooted her wheelchair over to the top of an aisle, so she could look directly at the stage. But, Duprey said, “arena employees told me to move because I was causing a fire hazard.”
The sight lines weren’t the only issue. Duprey and a good friend who went with her — another wheelchair user — said restrooms and concession stands were also largely inaccessible to disabled people. “They had 39 bathrooms and not one was compliant,” Duprey said. “At the time I’m thinking something has to be done—this is not right and other people know it’s not right.”
‘Start Doing Something’
For the XL Center, this was definitely not the right concert-goer to upset.
Duprey’s job in New Haven is to monitor compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and other disability-related laws. She recalls that one year prior to the concert, U.S. Justice Department attorneys visited her New Haven office. She said they commented on how Connecticut was “not so good on wheelchair accessibility” and that “people need to start doing something.”
Fast-forward to a month-and-a-half after the Springsteen concert. Duprey sent letters to both the Justice Department and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities about the XL Center, which is owned by the city of Hartford and leased to a management company.
“I tried to do this in a way that wasn’t litigious because when I contacted the state, I hoped there would be a way to work out some sort of resolution,” she said. “And it’s not that they were oppositional, but they basically said this needed to be taken to a different level.”
Duprey set out to collect more evidence. She brought a video camera to the 2010 “Senior Night” UConn basketball game at the XL Center and taped her still-obstructed view from the disabled seating section. She posted the video on YouTube. She sent a follow-up letter to the Justice Department, including a link to the online video. “I got a call from the U.S. Attorney’s Office a couple of weeks later saying, ‘OK, we’re doing an investigation,'” said Duprey.
At that point, Duprey reached out to Gary E. Phelan, a principal at Bridgeport law firm Cohen and Wolf whose practice includes employment and disability discrimination. The Justice Department brought in consultants to look at the building. The major question from the start, according to both Duprey and Phelan, was: “How can we solve this problem?”
“The objective of all parties involved was to work together, to reach a resolution, and that’s what we did,” said Phelan.
Under the terms of the settlement announced last week by acting Connecticut U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly, the XL Center’s management will, among other things, add handicapped-accessible bathrooms and create an unobstructed viewing area for disabled people.
“There were certainly a lot of ADA accommodations to be addressed along the way,” said Phelan. “It’s not just the traditional payment of some amount of money. We’re talking about structural changes and a large facility that was built [in 1976] well before the ADA was passed [in 1990].”
He continued: “Those tend to be hard cases to negotiate and they take time. Added to that was that there were multiple players involved here who have input—UConn has investment into the XL Center, the Department of Justice, the City of Hartford, the building’s management company. There’s a lot of different agendas involved here.”
Duprey said she hasn’t yet seen the renovations, but does know that the XL Center has already begun the process.
“I’ll have to wait until my next UConn [game] or Springsteen concert,” she said with a laugh, “But really, any improvement is better. Is it going to be perfect in my mind? No. Is it a step in the right direction? Yes. In any legal proceeding, you compromise on things.”
Duprey, who has been with the New Haven Department of Services for Persons with Disabilities for 15 years, hopes that others in the disabled community use her case as motivation to take action when they are inconvenienced by a lack of accommodation. “We all encounter people in wheelchairs every day,” she said. “In reality, Connecticut is aging and when people age, there’s a higher number of [people with handicaps]. There’s an exponential increase.”
Michelle L. Golladay 