After disability discrimination claim, Johnson County sporting goods store changes rule

An Overland Park sporting goods company has created a new policy prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities after a teenager with Down Syndrome filed a complaint in 2019.

As part of a settlement, Scheels All Sports Inc. made a new Americans with Disabilities Act policy that, among other things, does not “impose eligibility criteria that tends to screen out” people with disabilities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas.

The accusation the settlement stemmed from came from an 18-year-old woman who, during a high school outing at the store, was refused a ride on a Ferris wheel with a classmate because she has Down Syndrome, U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. The employee cited a company policy that required people with disabilities “be accompanied by an adult.”

A teacher tried to tell managers that the teen could safely ride the Ferris wheel, but they continued to refuse, prosecutors said.

Scheels will be required to pay $1,000 in compensation and create an Americans with Disabilities Act liaison. It will also allow the U.S. Attorney’s Office to “monitor its conduct” for the next three years, according to the news release.