Parking Lots at KBP-Owned KFC Restaurants Not Wheelchair Accessible, Suit Claims

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims FQSR, LLC, which does business as KBP Foods, LLC, discriminated against disabled customers by failing to make several of its Illinois KFC restaurants wheelchair accessible.

The case claims the lead plaintiff, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, visited one of the defendant’s Chicago locations and experienced “unnecessary difficulty and risk of physical harm when entering and exiting his vehicle” due to excessive slopes in the parking lot. The suit claims these slopes prevented the plaintiff’s “full and equal access” to the defendant’s goods and services and therefore violated the Americans with Disabilities Act’s standards for accessibility.

According to the complaint, investigators examined several of the defendant’s Illinois KFC locations, including the one visited by the plaintiff, and found that at least six had parking lots that did not meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) wheelchair-accessibility standards. These six locations, the suit says, all suffered one or more of the following ADA accessibility violations:

• Contained accessible parking spots with slopes greater than the maximum allowable 2.1%;
• Contained access aisles with slopes greater than the maximum allowable 2.1%; or
• Did not contain a level landing for curb ramps.

According to the case, these violations are likely not limited to the locations surveyed by investigators but are instead widespread among the defendants’ 567 locations across 19 states. From the complaint:

“The fact that individuals with mobility-related disabilities are denied full and equal access to numerous of Defendant’s facilities, and the fact that each of these facilities denies access by way of inaccessible parking facilities, is evidence that the inaccessibility Plaintiff experienced is not isolated, but rather, is caused by Defendant’s systemic disregard for the rights of individuals with disabilities.”

The suit seeks to represent all wheelchair users who were denied full and equal enjoyment of the goods and services of any of KBP’s U.S. locations due to the defendant’s alleged failure to comply with the ADA’s slope regulations for accessible parking areas.