The Americans with Disabilities Act is backwards. It goes into excruciating detail mandating requirements for buildings, transportation vehicles, etc., but the federal requirement for wheelchairs is one sentence long!*

My wife and I recently enjoyed a nice, relaxing lunch at a small restaurant in Julian. There were signs posted in various locations, "ADA compliance in progress." We talked with one of the owners about this. Their tale was one of extreme frustration at having to deal with apparent extortion or shakedown by an attorney taking advantage of the ADA, and confusion over contradictory requirements for ADA compliance. This unfortunate experience is unnecessary.

Wheelchairs should be designed to facilitate access to a variety of environments so that users can move about as naturally as possible. That would be better for them and save us all a lot of money.

The current problem includes the fact that the more capable a wheelchair is, the more places it can go, the more of a liability it is to the manufacturer. Our laws guarantee that!

Who uses wheelchairs? People with physical limitations, handicaps and injuries -- the very kind of people prone to accidents, and who are encouraged to sue by aggressive litigating attorneys.

We need legislation encouraging the design and manufacture of high-performance wheelchairs -- ones capable of crossing uneven terrain such as a lawn, that can go over normal height curbs and door thresholds; chairs that can pass through standard home doorways, maneuver easily in standard bathrooms, raise or lower users to fit various heights of tables, and provide easy access to kitchen cabinets. Designs for chairs that can do all of this have existed for years. But the chairs on the market today are largely based on designs dating back to the 1930s and 1940s.

Appropriate federal legislation would guarantee that a wheelchair manufacturer that met and maintained reasonable standards for safety and reliability would be exempt from all lawsuits related to their wheelchairs.

(*A "common wheelchair" does not exceed 30 inches in width and 48 inches in length measured 2 inches above the ground, and does not weigh more than 600 pounds when occupied.)

William M. Louis lives in Encinitas