FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    CR
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1994                                    (202) 616-2765
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888


         DALLAS HOTEL AGREES WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO BECOME
                  ACCESSIBLE TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES


     WASHINGTON, D.C. --  Business people and vacationers with
disabilities will have full access to the facilities in the Dallas
Hyatt Regency Hotel under an agreement reached with the Justice
Department.
     The agreement, signed today by Judge Jorge Solis in U.S.
District Court in Dallas, resolves a complaint filed with the
Justice Department by several children and adults who attended a
conference of the Spina Bifida Association of America at the
landmark hotel in June 1992.  
     The complainants claimed that the hotel's owners, the Woodbine
Development Corporation, and its operators, the Hyatt Corporation,
failed to make their facility accessible to individuals with
disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA).
     "We hope other hotels understand the significance of the ADA
in the lives of real people," said Assistant Attorney General for
Civil Rights Deval L. Patrick.   "We are committed to enforcing the
law and hope that hotels and other businesses will voluntarily take
steps to make their facilities accessible."
     Under the agreement the hotel will:
    make 28 guest rooms and suites accessible to people with
     disabilities;

    refurbish the hotel's exercise room and health club, and build
     ramps providing access to the hotel's hot tub and swimming
     pool; and,  

    modify drinking fountains and three sets of restrooms on the
     first three floors of the hotel.

     The hotel also has agreed to offer 24 people with disabilities
who attended the 1992 conference either a return trip to the hotel
with their families or $1,500 in damages.
     Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination against
individuals with disabilities by public accommodations such as
hotels.  It requires that businesses remove barriers in buildings
when it is "readily achievable" to do so.  Readily achievable is
defined as without much difficulty or expense.
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