Discrimination against the disabled continues even by major corporations.

Nancy Schwartz arrived at SeaWorld Orlando in the morning to experience another enjoyable day at her preferred theme park. She visits SeaWorld three times per week with her husband because she considers it her “number one Christmas destination.” Security personnel at the entrance stopped her from entering the park that day. The park now prohibits visitors from bringing rollators with seating inside the facility.

This was not a unique situation, as many encountered it with numerous other visitors. The three theme parks, SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica Orlando, and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, now prevent thousands of people who need rollator walkers with seats from entering their facilities. United Parks & Resorts Inc. owns these parks, which implemented a new policy to ban rollator walkers with seats after mid-summer 2024. The Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation to determine whether the ban violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The People Left Behind

The disability statistics from the United States show that such policies create significant harm to specific groups of people. The United States has 61 million adults who have disabilities, which makes one in four Americans part of this group. The adult population of the United States has 34.2 million people who have mobility disabilities, which makes up 13.3% of all adults.

The statistics regarding older Americans show higher rates of disability. The adult population aged 65 and above uses mobility devices at a rate of 24%. The senior population uses walkers at a rate of 11.6%. The United States has 59.3 million people aged 65 and older, which means millions of seniors need walkers to preserve their independence and life quality.

The number of Americans who use assistive mobility devices for community-based mobility reaches 6.8 million. The user base consists of 1.7 million wheelchair and scooter users and 6.1 million users of other mobility devices, including canes, crutches, and walkers. The statistics represent working adults, veterans, grandparents, mothers, and fathers who fight mobility issues to enjoy their lives.

Why Rollators Matter

The design of rollators with seats provides users with essential support during walking and enables them to take breaks when their body needs rest. They function beyond traditional walker capabilities, providing users with both walking stability and rest.

A rollator is a mobility device that bridges the gap between using a cane and a wheelchair for many individuals. It enables users to walk independently while providing a resting area when they need to take a break.

The park maintains that the ban is in place for safety reasons. Management stated that visitors used rollators as wheelchairs by sitting inside them while others pushed them, which violates the manufacturer's instructions. The user manual for rollators includes a section that states, “Do not have anyone push you while you are seated.” But a ban on rollators for all users becomes unjustified when critics point out that occasional visitor misuse doesn’t warrant such a restriction.

The park rents standard wheelchairs and electric scooters to visitors. The available rental options don’t provide the same level of service as the original equipment. Anyone who needs walking assistance with support doesn’t require wheelchair access. The high rental fees for frequent visitors also create an additional financial challenge that prevents them from accessing the park.

A Pattern of Barriers

The SeaWorld rollator ban is one instance of disability-related barriers people encounter in facilities that should provide full accessibility to all visitors. The Americans with Disabilities Act has protected people for 30 years, yet physical barriers persist in everyday life.

How many main streets in major cities have that type of alert system? I checked my town, and they may have only one, and it’s not in a heavily trafficked area. Anyone with vision impairments has to wait for someone to help them across the street, which is not only an assault on their self-esteem but a lack of consideration for the ADA.

Public restrooms present a fundamental challenge because their heavy doors prevent people with mobility issues from operating them without automatic door openers. The lack of these openers on heavy lavatory doors prevents people with limited strength or mobility from opening them. They must choose between seeking help from others or skipping essential facilities because of this problem.

Medical office buildings present an unfortunate contradiction: patients visit doctors for their illnesses, yet some of these facilities lack automatic door openers at their entrances. Using crutches or walkers while recovering from surgery means the patient must perform an impossible task: opening heavy doors while managing their mobility devices or other walking aids.

The accessibility of pedestrian signal buttons at intersections remains a major problem because wheelchair users and walkers can’t operate them. The 6.8 million Americans who use mobility devices report that wheelchair users face difficulties when using public transportation because four out of five users find it either hard to use or completely inaccessible.

I remember, while teaching one summer at a university, noticing a peculiar bird chirping in Bloomington, Indiana. Looking around, I saw no birds, and I asked someone what it was. They told me that when the light changed at the crosswalk, a chirping sound alerted those with vision impairments that it was safe to cross.

The parking areas and walkways at these locations create additional difficulties for users. The accessible parking areas at buildings are located far from building entrances, and their curbs lack proper accessibility features.

Wheelchair users encounter dangerous obstacles on uneven, broken sidewalks that create tripping hazards. The narrow paths between restaurant seating areas also prevent wheelchairs and walkers from accessing these areas. Store layouts in retail establishments create barriers for wheelchair users because they block their paths to products.

The Civil Rights Question

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination. The Americans with Disabilities Act Title III protects theme parks as public facilities. The law requires these facilities to create suitable accommodations that enable disabled people to fully participate.

The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division began an investigation of United Parks & Resorts Inc. on November 25, 2025, to determine whether the company violated ADA rules. The investigation will establish if the theme park’s policy against seated rollators constitutes discriminatory practices against disabled visitors.

The theme park policy represents a single instance of discrimination that exists within a broader pattern of disability barriers that people encounter daily. Americans who use mobility devices face significant difficulties with daily activities.

People who use mobility devices need assistance with self-care activities at a rate that is 40 times higher than those who don’t use these devices and they face numerous challenges in their daily lives. A major entertainment venue that implements additional barriers creates a message about which groups matter most in public spaces.

What You Can Do

People who have experienced SeaWorld’s rollator ban or any disability rights violation can take action through specific channels. People who want to report SeaWorld’s rollator ban or any other disability rights violation can submit their complaints to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Here’s how:

Users can submit complaints through the Civil Rights Division website at https://civilrights.justice.gov/report/ by filling out the online complaint form.

People who want to file complaints by mail should send their documents to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530.

You can file complaints through email. Send your documents to ADA.complaint@usdoj.gov.

Anyone needing assistance with their ADA complaint can contact the ADA Information Line at 800–514–0301 (voice) or 833–610–1264 (TTY) during weekdays. The Department provides assistance to people who cannot write their complaints because of disabilities through phone support.

Multiple national organizations that support disability rights offer assistance to their members:

The National Disability Rights Network operates with a phone number at 202–408–9514 and a TTY line at 202–408–9521 while maintaining a website at www.ndrn.org.

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) operates with a phone number at 202-457–0046 and maintains a website at www.aapd.com.

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund operates with a phone number at 510–644–2555 while maintaining its website at www.dredf.org.

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities operates with a phone number at 202–567–3516.

The Bigger Picture

The current dispute raises an essential question: which groups should participate in American society? Theme parks that establish policies that block disabled visitors from entering their facilities create more than just access problems because they establish public spaces where disabled people don’t belong.

The practice of exclusion occurs when building owners fail to install automatic doors, when cities neglect to create accessible crosswalks, and when businesses design spaces that prevent wheelchair access. Establishing each barrier communicates that your requirements don’t hold sufficient importance.

Nancy Schwartz expressed her disappointment to reporters when she stated, “It’s very disappointing. I’m very disappointed in SeaWorld”. The struggle for equal access and inclusion has continued for decades, according to the millions of people who support this cause.

The Department of Justice will conduct an investigation to establish if SeaWorld maintains a policy that complies with the law. The ban has already caused harm to the community, even though the legal process has not been completed.

The ban has demonstrated that public spaces still lack clear recognition of disability rights for people to exist freely. It’s been shown that businesses retain the power to make unexpected policy changes that force disabled people to find new solutions.

The disability rights movement extends beyond the theme-park issue of rollator accessibility. The fight for disability rights includes ensuring medical offices have automatic doors. The fight for disability rights includes obtaining accessible crosswalk signals. The fight for disability rights includes ensuring that everyone can access bathroom doors. The fight for disability rights aims to create a society that grants people with disabilities unrestricted access to all daily activities.

Investigation results have not yet been announced, but it is evident that disability rights advocacy continues without pause. The civil rights of more than 60 million Americans remain at risk because they want to know if their rights will be protected or if new barriers will emerge in areas that should be accessible to all.