Safeway Will Clear a Path for Those in Wheelchairs : Access: Supermarket chain’s agreement comes on the fifth anniversary of Americans With Disabilities Act.

On the fifth anniversary of a law prohibiting discrimination against the disabled, the Safeway supermarket chain agreed to clear away barriers that block wheelchairs from some of its stores.

Advocates for the disabled called Wednesday’s agreement a milestone for the Americans With Disabilities Act. The settlement covers all 835 Safeway stores in 16 states and the District of Columbia, making it the most sweeping access case yet under the disability law.

Oakland-based Safeway is the nation’s largest grocery chain.

In settling a lawsuit brought by disability rights groups, Safeway agreed to survey all of its stores to determine how they need to be changed to comply with the act. The Justice Department said the store chain will examine such issues as the location of parking, the height of automated teller machines and service counters within stores, the width of checkout aisles and the accessibility of telephones and restrooms.

“This is an historic agreement coming on an historic day, and I think it provides a role model to business,” said Matt Nosanchuk, an attorney representing the Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington and two wheelchair users who were unable to enter local Safeway stores.

President Clinton marked the law’s anniversary by meeting with a group of disabled people, including Miss America, Heather Whitestone, who is deaf.

When it was passed in 1990, the act was regarded as the most significant civil rights legislation since the 1960s, protecting the disabled against discrimination in the workplace and providing them greater access to public facilities.

Although critics have charged that the law engenders frivolous lawsuits and imposes excessive costs on business, most U.S. companies appear to have adjusted to the changes. A recent survey by Louis Harris & Associates for the National Organization on Disability found that only 12% of senior executives believe the act should be weakened or repealed.

The Justice Department helped negotiate the settlement with Safeway, acting on a complaint filed by Michael Reece, a Madison, Wis., man who was unable to get his wheelchair into a Safeway during a visit to Washington.

A similar complaint was also made in California, although Safeway spokeswoman Debra Lambert said the wheelchair access problem now exists only at East Coast stores and is no longer a problem at any of Safeway’s 215 Northern California locations.

The complaints involved poles designed to corral shopping carts near store entrances. Reece said the poles also blocked access to people in wheelchairs. Under terms of the agreement, Safeway agreed to make sure that each of its stores includes at least one 32-inch opening between poles to allow for wheelchair access.

Vons’ 308 California stores and Lucky Stores’ 410 locations do not use the shopping cart corrals, spokespersons for those chains said.

Safeway also agreed to pay $95,000, including a charitable donation to the nonprofit Disability Rights Council and damages for the two people who sued, Timothy Fox of Chevy Chase, Md., and Michela Alioto of Washington. The parties agreed not to say how the money was divided.

Brian Dowling, director of public affairs for Safeway, said it was too early to estimate how much it would cost to make the needed changes. The company had made a good-faith effort from the start to comply with the law, he said, but gained a better understanding of the needs of the disabled because of the complaints.

“This makes the company a leader in the retail grocery industry in making sure that our stores are accessible,” spokeswoman Lambert said. She characterized the cost of the nationwide store survey and any needed changes as “substantial” but said it should not have a material effect on earnings.