DJ 202-PL-00042 JUN 11 1992

DJ 202-PL-00163

Ms. Karen R. Fitzpatrick

Pyramid Life Insurance Company
6201 Johnson Drive
Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66202

Dear Ms. Fitzpatrick:

This letter responds to your correspondence requesting

information about the provisions of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA authorizes the Department of
Justice to provide technical assistance to individuals and
entities having rights and obligations under the Act. This
letter provides informal guidance to assist you in understanding
the ADA accessibility standards. However, it does not constitute
a legal interpretation and it is not binding on the Department.

Your letter inquires as to your responsibilities as tenant

and employer with respect to your field offices, and to what
extent your responsibilities as a tenant are effected by the
provisions of your lease with the building owners.

Your inquiry with respect to your responsibilities as an

employer should be directed to the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC). That is the agency charged with enforcing the
employment provisions in Title I of the ADA. You can write to
the EEOC at 1801 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20507 or call
the EEOC information line at (800) 669-EEOC.

Title III of the ADA, which this office enforces, sets forth
the obligations of privately owned places of public
accommodations.

With respect to the existing facilities, places of public

accommodation are required to remove architectural barriers to
access and structural communication barriers where it is readily
achievable to do so. Readily achievable means easily

cc: Records Chrono Wodatch Magagna.pl.42 Beard

arthur T. 6/9/92
01-00901
​ -2-
accomplishable without much difficulty or expense. The factors
to be considered in determining whether the removal of a
particular barrier is readily achievable include: the nature and
cost of the action; the financial resources available both to the
site and the parent organization; the size and number of
employees at the site and overall; and the relationship of the
sites to the parent organization. If barrier removal is not
readily achievable, you must take alternate steps to make
services available to the extent such measures are themselves
readily achievable. More stringent requirements apply for
alterations and new construction.

These obligations are imposed on both owners of the

structures in which places of public accommodation are located,
and on the operators of the places of public accommodation.
These obligations were effective as of January 26, 1992, and
cannot be delayed by any lease or other private agreement. The
landlord and the tenant may allocate the expense of conforming to
the requirements of Title III in their lease agreement, but both
landlord and tenant remain obliged under the ADA to comply with
its terms and remain liable for any failure to comply.

These and other obligations imposed by the ADA are discussed

in the enclosed Title III Technical Assistance Manual recently
published by this Department. I hope this information will be
useful to you.

Sincerely,

Joan A. Magagna
Deputy Director
Office on the Americans with Disabilities Act
01-00902
​PYRAMID LIFE SINCE 1913
THE PYRAMID LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, 6201 JOHNSON DRIVE,
SHAWNEE MISSION,
KANSAS 66202 (913) 722-1110

April 24, 1992

2nd request
OFFICE ON THE ADA
CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION
US DEPT OF JUSTICE
PO BOX 66118
WASHINGTON DC 20035-6118
Gentlemen:

We are an insurance company with our home office in Shawnee Mission, Kansas,
but with 25 field offices located across the country.

1. What are our responsibilities as tenants and employers as regards the field
offices?

2. Is the fact that we are incorporating a section in our leases requiring the
landlord be responsible for making any alterations to comply with the
accessility requirement of the ADA sufficient?

3. If we are in existing leases not due to expire until after July 31, 1992,
maywe wait until the lease expires to require the landlord to comply with the
ADA?

4. What if the landlord, by signing the lease, agrees to make any changes
necessary, but then does not make them? What are our responsibilities at that
point?

Thank you for any assistance you can give me. I have read the Public Law
101-336 publication, but cannot find specific answers to the above questions.

Sincerely,

Karen R. Fitzpatrick
Staff Accountant

KRF:msw
01-00903