Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru accused of disability discrimination
WEYMOUTH, Mass. -- Is it a case of Dunkin' discrimination?

Donald Hayes, 54, suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a motorized wheelchair. He says that when he rolls up to his local Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru for coffee, they will not serve him because of his vehicle.

"I'll have to get a lawyer and pursue it," Hayes said. "They're violating my rights."

The Dunkin' Donuts store, which is located in a shopping market parking lot, is a drive-thru only service. Hayes claims that the store allowed him to drive up in his wheelchair for months, but all of a sudden, the store changed it's policy.

"Dunkin' Donuts does not have a corporate policy regarding the use of wheelchairs in drive-thrus, but are worried about a potential injury in a traffic accident," the company said in a released statement.

"I don't come here at night," Hayes said. "I don't come here during a rainstorm or a blizzard. I'm not that stupid. I come when the weather's available and when I want a cup of coffee."

Hayes lives about three miles from the nearest Dunkin' Donuts and says that the MBTA van that takes him to the coffee shop will not go to the drive-thru for him.

Customers at the Dunkin' Donuts are divided over policy. But believing his situation is discrimination, Hayes says that he is considering legal action, but he's not doing it for cash.

"I just wanted to go get a cup of coffee," Hayes said. "I'm not looking for anything. I'm not looking for thousands of dollars or millions of dollars for suing them or anything. That's not what I'm looking for."

According to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, it is illegal to deny admission or accessibility because of a person's disability.

You know I think this has to do with liability and insurances.

Cars can drive up and hit a pedestrian or someone in a wheelchair ...so
those rules exist.

Seems with this situation some compromise could be made?

He could wave to them, and they could come outside for him at the front door or something like that?

I have worked in pharmacies with drive thrus. We will not attend or allow
pedestrians who walk up to the window. We were told not to under any
circumstances. But no one in a wheelchair ever attempted it.

I would write the corporate offices...and if that were negative, then I would continue thru the newspapers. But the bottom line is probably a clause in the liability contract of the insurance carrier they use. If that clause is violated, then liability is forfeit if an accident occurs (a car strikes the wheelchair).
Design of the approach to the window may obscure the wheelchair and person in it, so a car could accidently not see them.