The Bush administration is about to propose far-reaching new rules thatwould give people with disabilities greater access to tens of thousandsof courtrooms, swimming pools, golf courses, stadiums, theaters, hotelsand retail stores.

The proposal would substantially update and rewrite federalstandards for enforcement of the Americans With Disabilities Act, alandmark civil rights law passed with strong bipartisan support in1990. The new rules would set more stringent requirements in many areasand address some issues for the first time, in an effort to meet theneeds of an aging population and growing numbers of disabled warveterans.

More than seven million businesses and all state andlocal government agencies would be affected. The proposal includes someexemptions for parts of existing buildings, but any new construction orrenovations would have to comply.

The new standards would affecteverything from the location of light switches to the height of retailservice counters, to the use of monkeys as “service animals” for peoplewith disabilities, which would be forbidden.

The White Houseapproved the proposal in May after a five-month review. It is scheduledto be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, with 60 days forpublic comment. After considering those comments, the government wouldissue final rules with the force of law.

Already, the proposalis stirring concern. The United States Chamber of Commerce says itwould be onerous and costly, while advocates for disabled Americans sayit does not go far enough.

Since the disability law was signedby the first President Bush, advances in technology have made servicesmore available to people with disabilities. But Justice Departmentofficials said they were still receiving large numbers of complaints.In recent months, the federal government has settled lawsuits securingmore seats for disabled fans at Madison Square Garden in New York andat the nation’s largest college football stadium, at the University of Michigan.

The Census Bureau says more than 51 million Americans have some kind of disability, with nearly two-thirds of them reporting severe impairments.

The proposed rules, under development for more than four years, fleshout the meaning of the 1990 law, which set forth broad objectives. The215,000-word proposal includes these new requirements:

¶Courtswould have to provide a lift or a ramp to ensure that people inwheelchairs could get into the witness stand, which is usually elevatedfrom floor level.

¶Auditoriums would have to provide a lift or aramp so wheelchair users could “participate fully and equally ingraduation exercises and other events” at which members of the audiencehave direct access to the stage.

¶Any sports stadium with aseating capacity of 25,000 or more would have to provide safety andemergency information by posting written messages on scoreboards andvideo monitors. This would alert people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

¶Theaters must provide specified numbers of seats for wheelchair users(at least five in a 300-seat facility). Viewing angles to the screen orstage must be “equivalent to or better than the average viewing anglesprovided to all other spectators.”

¶Light switches in a hotel room could not be more than 48 inches high. The current maximum is 54 inches.

¶Hotels must allow people with disabilities to reserve accessible guestrooms, and they must honor these reservations to the same degree theyguarantee other room reservations.

¶At least 25 percent of therailings at fishing piers would have to be no more than 34 inches high,so that a person in a wheelchair could fish over the railing.

¶At least half of the holes on miniature golf courses must beaccessible to people using wheelchairs, and these holes must beconnected by a continuous, unobstructed path.

¶A new swimmingpool with a perimeter of more than 300 feet would have to provide “atleast two accessible means of entry,” like a gentle sloping ramp or achair lift.

¶New playgrounds would have to provide access to slides, swings and other play equipment for children who use wheelchairs.

TheJustice Department acknowledged that some of the changes would havesignificant costs. But over all, it said, the value of the publicbenefits, estimated at 54 billion, exceeds the expected costs of 23billion.

In an economic analysis of the proposed rules, theJustice Department said the need for an accessible environment wasgreater than ever because the Iraq war was “creating a new generationof young men and women with disabilities.”

John L. Wodatch, chief of the disability rights section of theJustice Department, said: “Disability is inherent in the humancondition. The vast majority of individuals who are fortunate enough toreach an advanced age will benefit from the proposed requirements.”

By 2010, the department estimates, 2 percent of the adult populationwill use wheelchairs, and 4 percent will use crutches, canes, walkersor other mobility devices. Likewise, it said, as the population ages,the number of people with hearing loss will increase.

Under the 1990 law, businesses are supposed to remove barriers topeople with disabilities if the changes are “readily achievable,”meaning they can be “carried out without much difficulty or expense.”

The Bush administration is proposing a safe harbor for smallbusinesses. They could meet their obligations in a given year if, inthe prior year, they had spent at least 1 percent of their grossrevenues to remove barriers.

Curtis L. Decker, executivedirector of the National Disability Rights Network, a coalition oflegal advocates, said: “Safe harbors make us very nervous. A smallbusiness could spend the requisite amount of money and still not beaccessible.”

Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the UnitedStates Chamber of Commerce, said the proposed rules “are so long andtechnically complex that even the best-intentioned small business couldbe found out of compliance by a clever lawyer looking to force asettlement.”

The Justice Department cited the “monetary costcap” as one of several steps it was taking to limit the rules’ impacton small businesses. But Mr. Johnson said he feared that courts wouldview the ceiling as a floor and tell businesses they should spend 1percent of their revenues on removing barriers.

The proposedrules affirm the right of people with disabilities to use guide dogsand other service animals in public places, but they tighten thedefinition to exclude certain species.

When the existing ruleswere adopted in the early 1990s, the Justice Department said, fewpeople anticipated the current trend toward “the use of wild, exotic orunusual species” as service animals.

The proposed rules define aservice animal as “any dog or other common domestic animal individuallytrained to do work or perform tasks” for a person with a physical ormental disability.

Under this definition, the administrationsays, monkeys could not qualify as service animals, nor would reptiles;amphibians; rabbits, ferrets and rodents; or most farm animals.

Under the rules, a hotel, restaurant, theater, store or public parkcould ask a person with a disability to remove a service animal if theanimal was out of control or not housebroken, or if it posed a directthreat to the health or safety of others.

By way of example, the rules say that a theater could exclude a dog that disrupted a live performance by repeated barking.

The rules confirm that people with disabilities can use traditionalwheelchairs, power wheelchairs and electric scooters in any publicareas open to pedestrians.

But shopping centers, amusementparks and other public places could impose reasonable restrictions ontwo-wheeled Segway vehicles, golf carts and “other power-drivenmobility devices” used by those with disabilities.