What Are OPDMDs? ADA Access Rules and Facility Limits

Other power-driven mobility devices, or OPDMDs, are motorized devices that people with mobility disabilities use to get around but that fall outside the ADA’s definition of a wheelchair. Golf carts, Segways, electric scooters, and all-terrain vehicles all fit the category. Businesses and state and local government facilities generally have to let you use one, but unlike wheelchairs, an OPDMD can be restricted if the facility can point to a genuine safety reason grounded in the specific device and the specific place.¹

Why the Wheelchair Line Matters

A wheelchair, manual or electric, has to be allowed anywhere the public is permitted to go. No assessment, no balancing test, no case-by-case review. Walkers, crutches, canes, and braces get the same unconditional access.²

OPDMDs get a different rule. Covered entities must make reasonable modifications to their policies to permit OPDMD use, but they can restrict a particular class of device if they can show it poses a legitimate safety problem. The burden sits on the facility to justify the restriction, not on you to justify the device. If a facility does bar a type of OPDMD, it still has to try to serve you through some alternative means where possible.¹

What Counts as an OPDMD

The federal definition is deliberately broad. An OPDMD is “any mobility device powered by batteries, fuel, or other engines” used for locomotion by a person with a mobility disability, whether or not the device was originally designed for people with disabilities.³ That last piece is what separates OPDMDs from wheelchairs. A power wheelchair is designed for someone with a disability. A golf cart is not, but it becomes an OPDMD when a person with a disability uses it to get around.

Common examples in the regulations and DOJ guidance include Segways, golf carts, electric scooters, all-terrain vehicles, and devices built to operate off standard sidewalks. Because the category is defined by function rather than design intent, newer personal electric vehicles generally fall into it as they appear on the market.³

When a Facility Can Restrict Your Device

Before restricting any class of OPDMD, a business or government facility must work through five factors. The list appears in identical form in the regulations governing public entities and private businesses, and the analysis has to be tied to actual risks rather than assumptions about a device type.⁴

The type, size, weight, dimensions, and speed of the device. A 1,200-pound ATV raises different concerns than a 50-pound scooter.
The volume of pedestrian traffic, which can vary by time of day, week, or season.
The facility’s design and operations, including indoor versus outdoor use, square footage, how densely fixtures are arranged, and whether storage is available.
Whether workable safety rules could make the device safe to use, such as matching pedestrian pace or staying off escalators.
Whether the device creates a serious risk of harm to the environment, natural resources, or cultural artifacts, or conflicts with federal land management rules.

The regulations set no numerical thresholds for weight, speed, or square footage. A museum with fragile floors and narrow corridors will land somewhere different than an outdoor stadium.²

Speed

The ADA doesn’t set a maximum speed in miles per hour. Instead, a facility can require you to travel at the pace of surrounding pedestrians. Acceptable speed shifts with the setting: walking pace inside a crowded mall is much slower than on a wide outdoor boardwalk.¹

Gas-Powered Devices

Devices powered by gasoline or other combustion engines face the steepest restrictions. The Department of Justice has stated that all types of fuel or combustion-engine devices may be excluded from indoor settings based on health or environmental concerns, such as exhaust fumes in enclosed spaces. Outdoors, combustion-powered devices like ATVs will generally be prohibited in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, though they may be permitted in more open outdoor settings where exhaust and noise pose less risk.¹

What Staff Can Ask You

Wheelchair users cannot be questioned about their disability at all. OPDMD users get the same protection with one narrow addition: staff may ask for “credible assurance” that you are using the device because of a mobility disability.²

Credible assurance is easy to provide. Any of these works:

A state-issued disability parking placard or card.
Other state-issued proof of disability.
A verbal statement that the device is being used for a mobility disability, as long as observable facts don’t contradict it.

That third option is the one most people will use. A simple statement like “I need this for my disability” is enough. Staff cannot demand a doctor’s note, ask for a diagnosis, or require you to demonstrate the disability. If you say you need it and nothing visible contradicts you, the inquiry ends there.⁴

If You’re Denied Access

You have two main paths when a covered entity refuses to let you use your OPDMD in violation of the ADA.

You can file a complaint directly with the Department of Justice through its online form at ada.gov. DOJ staff review the report and may follow up for more information, open mediation or an investigation, or route the complaint to another agency.⁵

You can also sue in federal court. Against a private business under Title III, an individual lawsuit gets you injunctive relief only, meaning a court order requiring the business to change its practices, alter its facilities, or modify its policies.⁶ Private plaintiffs cannot recover monetary damages under Title III, though the court can award reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation costs to the prevailing party.⁷

DOJ enforcement actions carry more weight. When the Attorney General proves a pattern of discrimination or a violation raising issues of general public importance, the court can award monetary damages to the people affected and impose civil penalties. The statute sets base caps at $50,000 for a first violation and $100,000 for subsequent violations, adjusted periodically for inflation.⁶

Where These Rules Don’t Apply

A few settings sit outside the OPDMD rules entirely. ADA Title III exempts religious entities, including places of worship and organizations they control, and the exemption covers all of the entity’s activities, religious or secular.⁸

Genuinely private clubs are also exempt, using the same definition that applies under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Courts look at how selective membership is, whether substantial fees are charged, member control over operations, and nonprofit status. A business that calls itself a “club” but admits anyone for a nominal fee will not qualify, and if a private club rents space to a business open to the public, the exemption drops away for that portion of the facility.⁸

Federal wilderness areas are also carved out. In wilderness, the ADA uses a narrower definition of “wheelchair” that covers only devices designed solely for use by a mobility-impaired person and suitable for indoor pedestrian areas. Congress confirmed that nothing in the Wilderness Act prohibits wheelchair use, but agencies aren’t required to build facilities or modify conditions to accommodate them.⁹ OPDMDs like ATVs and golf carts have no guaranteed access to federal wilderness, and land management agencies can prohibit them under their existing authority.

1
ADA.gov. ADA Requirements: Wheelchairs, Mobility Aids, and Other Power-Driven Mobility Devices
2
eCFR. 28 CFR 35.137 – Mobility Devices
3
eCFR. 28 CFR 35.104 – Definitions
4
eCFR. 28 CFR 36.311 – Mobility Devices
5
ADA.gov. ADA.gov Homepage
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12188 – Enforcement
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12205 – Attorneys Fees
8
ADA.gov. ADA Title III Technical Assistance Manual
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12207 – Wilderness Designations and Provisions