The American with Disabilities Act is one of the great pieces of legislation of the last 50 years or more. It literally opened doors for people with all types of disabilities that substantially limit a major life function. It has led to better lives for the hearing impaired, people with intellectual disabilities, severe arthritis, autism, etc. An ancillary effect has been to welcome these folks into the mainstream of society. No longer does one go to the supermarket and see others gawking at someone with a noticeable disability. Indeed we now even have commercials featuring the disabled.
The Casey Martin legal case was folly on the part of the PGA Tour. It is always a mistake to give control to the courts, This was an individual case and the PGA Tour would have been much wiser to allow the cart and keep it out of the court.
There were four components to the case: 1. Did CM have a disability under ADA? 2. Was a golf tournament a place of public accommodation? 3. Was walking an essential part of PGA tour golf competition? 4. Was the use of a cart a reasonable accommodation?
The court decision is limited to Casey Martin only because disabilities need to be determined on a case by case basis. Parts 2,3, and 4 would likely apply to anyone who is found to have a disability under ADA.
Part 3 is the trickiest of the 3 components. Casey Martin had used a cart at Stanford. Carts were allowed in the first two stages of Q school, but not in the third. There is nothing in the rules of golf that says one must walk. The PGA's mandate of walking only was therefore based on tradition. Certainly tradition has been the basis for much discrimination.
The PGA needed to show that the use of a cart would fundamentally alter the nature of the golf tournament. As is typical, ambiguous language open to interpretation and the key phrase is fundamentally alter. The court ruled it would not and that walking was not indispensable to the competition.
Whether Tiger Woods or any other golfer qualifies for a cart would again be up to the PGA tour. If denied, and Tiger or another pursued this, again the court would need to rule. It makes no difference the cause of the disability. Congenital, accident or wear and tear. If one has severe arthritis from wear and tear and cannot walk they are indeed disabled under ADA.
It was a huge error for the PGA Tour to have denied Casey Martin and allowed the court to intervene. There is now precedence. Then again with this court does precedence matter?