Lawsuit to alter gas stations

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Lawsuit to alter gas stations
Conoco to ensure wheelchair access in settlement with Denver women
By Greg Avery, Camera Staff Writer
August 9, 2002

Julie Farrar-Kuhn sat in her wheelchair waving a check and her handicapped parking placard at a gas station cashier.

She wanted to pay to gas up her minivan but could not reach the Conoco pump's credit card slot or go inside the store - a car parked in the handicapped spot blocked the wheelchair ramp, and an ice machine prevented her from using the sidewalk to the door.

Farrar-Kuhn, a mother of two young children and an administrative assistant for the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Planning Council, went somewhere else for her gas that day, but the 1998 incident was not forgotten.

"It was frustrating because it amounted to so many different barriers at once," she said.

She and another Denver resident, Carrie Ann Lucas, a mother and accessibility researcher for the Colorado Cross-Disabilities Coalition, compiled a list of similar experiences and filed a 1999 lawsuit that now means Conoco-owned gas stations will change - though maybe only in ways wheelchair users would notice.

In a settlement expected be ratified in a Denver court next month, Conoco-owned stores in the West - 10 across Boulder and Broomfield counties, four of them in Boulder - will change to ensure gas pumps and stores can be used by people in wheelchairs.

"It's very understandable that folks with disabilities - folks in a wheelchair - are concerned about being able to use all the conveniences at a gas station," said John Bennitt, Conoco's public affairs representative.

While able-bodied customers could gas their cars and drive away after paying at the pump, customers in wheelchairs at most Conocos have to enter the store to pay.

Newspaper racks, windshield-wiper fluid supplies, soda displays and other promotions crowd outside sidewalks and store aisles, Lucas and Farrar-Kuhn said.
Payment counters, restrooms, parking spaces, beverage coolers and other gas station features are frequently maintained in ways that make them inaccessible, too, they said.

In its settlement, Conoco has agreed to correct such problems in 124 stores it owns. The company also agreed to a set of policies and independent reviews to try to keep wheelchair accessibility problems from recurring.

Other gas station companies have settled similar suits brought by wheelchair users, though with mixed results for disabled customers, experts say.

The Conoco agreement will not cover all or even a majority of stores with the Conoco name nationally because it does not apply to independently owned franchise stores.

Amy Robertson, one of the attorneys representing Farrar-Kuhn and Lucas, said her clients accepted Conoco's terms for the stores it owns and will see in the future about getting franchise owners to comply with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.

Lucas and Farrar-Kuhn said they hope Conoco franchise holders will voluntarily live up to the settlement.

The Americans With Disabilities Act prompted manufacturers to make pumps with credit card slots within 54 inches of the ground, but most stations installed the pumps on curbs 6 inches high or taller, putting them out of reach of most wheelchair users.

"It became a good idea gone wrong," Robertson said.

At least one pump at all Conoco-owned stores will be changed to have pay-at-the-pump features within reach of a wheelchair user, Bennitt said.

If the settlement is approved by the court, the company will hire an independent monitor to test its new accessibility standards at six Denver metro-area stores.

If the stores pass, the company will begin a three-year process of changing the rest of the gas stations and stores it owns.

Conoco will also pay Farrar-Kuhn and Lucas $8,000 each and cover their legal costs.