July 28, 2008—The Department of Justice announced a settlement agreement with the Education Management Corporation (EDMC) under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
EDMC is a for-profit business that provides education and training and is one of the largest providers of private post-secondary education (primarily career-focused education) in North America. The agreement covers 19 Brown Mackie campuses, which are operated by EDMC and located in Ohio, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Arizona and Oklahoma. Under the agreement, EDMC will make these campuses more accessible to individuals with disabilities by removing architectural barriers.
This is the Department’s first ADA agreement with a post-secondary for-profit school, and the Department’s first agreement with an education provider that leases all of its campus facilities from another entity. EDMC leases, but does not own, each of its Brown Mackie campus buildings.
Title III of the ADA requires that places of public accommodation remove barriers to access from existing facilities where it is readily achievable to do so. It also requires that no individual with a disability is discriminated against on the basis of a disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the services and facilities of a place of public accommodation. For more information, see the ADA Web site.
