Americans w/Disabilites act apply to banning someone from a message board?

[annecu]

Hello,

My husband and I run a website about the city we live in where much of the content is driven by our members who post in the phpbb message boards. Occassionally, someone signs up and gets out of hand, does not respond to warnings to calm down, end personal attacks, etc and we disable their account so they can no longer post, sometimes ban their IP address.

Recently we just had a person do just this. We sent him several private messages and emails to stop and he just responded with this:

"I may have not gone about things correctly but it sure pisses me off that I have a dozen pieces of public art just sitting in storage when they could be out on display in this city. If I wasn't constantly discriminated against for being bi-polar (manic depression), that work would be on display. Manic depression produces social difficulties and genius IQ's.

Being banned from your site is discrimination. I'm not sure the Americans with Disabilities Act covers something like this or not."

Is there any truth to this? I looked up some cases quickly online and it appears that the ADA does have some applicabilty to the internet, but I wasn't sure if it can be applied to banning someone from an internet message board if they are not following rules.

Please help!
Thanks.

 

[cbg]

I will admit up front that my knowledge of the ADA is pretty much limited to the employment arena. But in that area, an employee who has a medical condition that qualifies for ADA protection, but who refuses to abide by company policy or rules, can legally be terminated. The ADA does not give him blanket protection from any and all terminations; it levels the playing field so that the fact of his disability does not keep him from being employed. He is still required to maintain the same level and standard of work (unless specifically spelled out as part of an accomodation) and is still required to follow the same rules and policies as the other employees (again, unless specifically spelled out as part of an accomodation).

Extrapolating from that, my best guess is that if he will not follow the rules, you are free to ban him.

Illegal discrimination is treating someone DIFFERENTLY because of their (protected characteristic). Requiring them to abide by the same rules as everyone else is not treating them differently. It is treating them the same as everyone else, which is what you are supposed to do.

 

[seniorjudge]

...

Extrapolating from that, my best guess is that if he will not follow the rules, you are free to ban him.

....

Amen and amen.

You don't have to have ANY reason to ban him.

 

[annecu]

thank you! that is a relief to hear.

 

[Duranie]

He still must abide by the terms and conditions of the website. Being disabled does not mean you are exempt from following policies, although many people with disabilities seem to think they are exempt from following rules and guidelines.

 

[annecu]

awesome. that's what I thought.

The situation sort of resolved itself, he has left my husband voicemails and emails 'taking back' what he said, which we are keeping for just in case. It is rather annoying though.