I'm Lauren Markham. I'm a contributor to the New York Times magazine and my recent story is titled The Man Who Filed More Than 180 Disability Lawsuits.

It's interesting because you could also think of it as the man who has been unable to access a restaurant, or a bathroom, or a movie seat, or a parking spot, or a check out counter, 180 times.

The man's name is Albert Dijche. He's 71 and when he was in his 30s, he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

Over the decades, his mobility has been decreasing, and so now he frequently finds himself in public, unable to access the services and do the everyday things that he used to do.

Sometimes, when he encounters one of these barriers, he decides to sue.

There's a lot of tension around these lawsuits, where people with disabilities sue businesses for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

There's even a narrative out there that people who file a lot of these lawsuits are bad actors, professional plaintiffs, grifters.

Sometimes, in rare instances, a favorite restaurant or shop might even close because of one of these lawsuits, and this can really amp up the controversy.

But the interesting thing is that this is how the ADA was designed to work.

The only way to enforce the guidelines in this enormous and momentous piece of civil rights legislation is through these lawsuits.

And this is something I really can't stop thinking about after writing this piece.

So here's my story about Albert Dijche, and his 180 lawsuits, read by Amary Gettady Wilson.

This was recorded by Autumn.

Autumn is an app you can download to listen to lots of audio stories from publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic.

Dan Vee Vu was out on the floor of her restaurant one chilly evening in December 2019, when a staff member called her to the hostestation to assist an angry customer.

A man in a wheelchair, who, along with his wife, had been stuck outside.

The couple said that they had tried the accessible entrance through a courtyard, but found the gate locked.

Which had left the man shivering out in the cold, while his wife circled back to a non-accessible entrance at the front of the restaurant for help opening the gate.

Vu apologized profusely and looked up their reservation.

It showed that they had requested an accessible table, but Vu's staff was still getting used to a new reservation system and hadn't seen the note.

All the accessible spots were occupied. Vu apologized again and assured the couple to the hallway to wait.

Soon she sat them at the accessible part of the bar, the couple ate and left.

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