Timeline
A court safe chronology of the non-traditional mobility-device concept, the BART roller skates determination, and DOJ OPDMD codification.
Court-safe summary: DOT recognized the non-traditional mobility-device concept before DOJ codified OPDMDs, and FTA applied that concept to roller skates in the 2007 BART determination.
DOT's first clear federal use of the non-traditional or non-standard mobility device concept appears to be September 1, 2005, in DOT disability-law guidance on Segways used as mobility devices by people with disabilities. DOT later described that guidance as covering non-traditional mobility devices and saying transportation providers must accept them when they can be physically accommodated and do not create a direct safety threat.
The key first federal DOT/FTA use to verify and cite for skates or roller skates is October 15, 2007, in the FTA BART complaint ruling. The record should be read as an environment-specific analysis, not as a categorical access rule for every location.
The ruling is described as analyzing use of roller skates as a mobility aid, including allowing them in BART concourse and outside station areas while permitting exclusion from platforms and rail vehicles.
Bay Area Rapid Transit District, San Francisco, CA, 10-15-07
September 15, 2010: DOJ published revised ADA Title II and Title III regulations in the Federal Register and adopted the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.
Those revisions also formalized the ADA framework for “other power-driven mobility devices,” including less-traditional powered devices such as Segways and golf carts.
Skates and roller skates should be discussed separately from OPDMDs: they are a non-traditional mobility aid example analyzed by FTA in an environment-specific transit record.
ADA Requirements: Wheelchairs, Mobility Aids, and Other Power-Driven Mobility Devices