# ADA Title 3 and 5 magic words **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388 "2015-03-31T02:30:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/21 "2015-03-31T16:59:23Z")
I’m not sure I understand the whole thread. The quoted ADA seems t suggest it applies to employees who need “reasonable accommodation”. I can see why it might be reasonable to accommodate a customer - or is the health insurance provider considered part of the workplace if the insurance is a a workplace benefit? But a stranger phoning out of the blue - how does that even pretend to be someone to which reasonable accommodation is due? By that logic, every place of business would need a sign language person, an amplified phone setup, and rubber bumpers on all sharp corners. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/22 "2015-03-31T18:09:14Z")
I don’t think sense has anything to do with it. It was a random ranter on the phone. Thanks, **Blake** , for finding the blog with the whole rant on it. I was pretty sure that we’d have been cribbed if there had been 5 required words, but you never know. That pretty much put the question to rest. I get wrong numbers at work all the time, so there’s a possibility that I’d have gotten close to the 5 words by accident, just because I’d be asking questions to try to figure out where I could forward his call. It’s usually either Animal Control or the main PD line that they were trying to get. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/23 "2015-03-31T18:58:00Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I’m not sure why, but I tried a Google search on this. I managed to find a similar rant [in a blog.](http://ibelieveintheada2013.blogspot.com.au/) Reading through the absence of punctuation, the total lack of context, the stream-of-consciousness prose and the references to Secret Agents and hidden cameras, the point seems to be this: > … Way to take one for the team!! 🙂 Thanks for some diligent and probably unpleasant digging. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/24 "2015-03-31T19:13:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Way to take one for the team!! 🙂 > > Thanks for some diligent and probably unpleasant digging. Sounds like the same information. I didn’t get a name or anything so can’t be sure. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/25 "2015-03-31T19:38:31Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I’m not sure why, but I tried a Google search on this. I managed to find a similar rant [in a blog.](http://ibelieveintheada2013.blogspot.com.au/) Reading through the absence of punctuation, the total lack of context, the stream-of-consciousness prose and the references to Secret Agents and hidden cameras, the point seems to be this: > > If someone is disabled, but they do not have any visible disabilities, they should say “Reasonable Accommodation” before they say anything else. Any US citizen then has to respond with **the five magic words "“What is your Reasonable Accommodation”**. Failing to respond with those words is apparently illegal, a violation of the caller’s civil rights and makes them not a US citizen. > > The source of this is an anonymous blogger who admits he has been arrested for Social Security fraud, recounting second-hand information received from a “Secret Service Agent for the Department of Homeland Security”. > > So clearly this is legit legal advice. _BUT_ if you keep a flag with a gold fringe on it in your office then you are under Admiralty Law and the ADA does not apply to you. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/26 "2015-03-31T20:01:48Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Any US citizen then has to respond with **the five magic words "“What is your Reasonable Accommodation”**. That doesn’t even make sense. That essay makes me think that this person’s disability has something to do with mental illness. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/27 "2015-03-31T20:40:29Z")
Reasonable Accomodation ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/28 "2015-03-31T20:48:08Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > _BUT_ if you keep a flag with a gold fringe on it in your office then you are under Admiralty Law and the ADA does not apply to you. Ah, but if you do that, you’re a Fourteenth Amendment Citizen and I am the Living Soil, so I can use a motor vehicle on the roads without a license, because I am not driving, I am traveling, as it is my inalienable right as a Citizen of The Several United States of America, and you cannot stop me, for my signature is _not_ in ALL-CAPS, it is a sigil, and the nature of the sigil is Me, My Godly And Sovereign Self, as per The Constitution of 1789, and I am _not_ the straw-man entity to which you refer, and if I yell over you loudly enough, the bailiffs will not taze me, handcuff me, and drag me out of this fictional courtroom of Commercial Law because I do not understand for I refuse to stand under the contractual tort law… _aaaaah_ _flops over, tazed_ Anyway, the five magic words are “Are you completely fucking insane?” and then a duck with a cigar in its bill drops down and gives you a hundred dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/29 "2015-03-31T21:05:32Z")
It’s an Australian blog. Maybe ADA there refers to the Australian Dingo Act. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/30 "2015-03-31T21:44:07Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > It’s an Australian blog. Maybe ADA there refers to the Australian Dingo Act. And the five magic words are “The dingo ate your baby”! ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/31 "2015-03-31T21:49:40Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > … > Anyway, the five magic words are “Are you completely fucking insane?” and then a duck with a cigar in its bill drops down and gives you a hundred dollars. I prefer “What is your major malfunction?” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/32 "2015-03-31T21:50:54Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > And the five magic words are “The dingo ate your baby”! Aussies are tough enough it’s more like “Your baby ate my dingo!” ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/33 "2015-03-31T22:07:45Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > It’s an Australian blog. Maybe ADA there refers to the Australian Dingo Act. The link we were given by Blake was at a .au URL, but [this .com URL works also](http://ibelieveintheada2013.blogspot.com/). The guy who writes that blog appears to be in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/34 "2015-03-31T22:24:22Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > So I got a call at work from this guy recently. He seems to make it a habit of calling places and only saying ‘reasonable accommodation’ then lecturing you for not saying the 5 magic words he claims are required by law. Are you in Florida? It seems likely to me that you got a call from [Andrew Levitin](https://plus.google.com/104613038171422492333/posts). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/35 "2015-04-01T01:07:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **robert\_columbia** : > > I prefer “What is your major malfunction?” Which, if you think about it, is equivalent in meaning to the crackpot’s preferred response. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/36 "2015-04-01T03:01:46Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > The link we were given by Blake was at a .au URL, but [this .com URL works also](http://ibelieveintheada2013.blogspot.com/). The guy who writes that blog appears to be in Florida. That explains everything. Florida is the new California when it comes to whackos and nutcases. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/37 "2015-04-01T14:40:35Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > And the five magic words are “The dingo ate your baby”! > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Aussies are tough enough it’s more like “Your baby ate my dingo!” “Two great tastes that taste great together…” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/38 "2015-04-01T15:33:26Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Are you in Florida? It seems likely to me that you got a call from [Andrew Levitin](https://plus.google.com/104613038171422492333/posts). Pretty impressive. In just 20 hours we went from “I’m an anonymous guy working at an anonymous location for an anonymous company who got an perplexing & poorly understood call from an anonymous guy” to “This is him & where he lives and what he’s ranting on about.” Bravo Sir ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/39 "2015-04-01T15:54:38Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Reasonable Accomodation You’re not the boss of me! Damn! That’s six words. Now I need to self-deport. Oh well, it was a good run… ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388/40 "2015-04-01T18:49:45Z")
Does “hocus-pocus” and “abra-cadabra” count as one word or two? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ada-title-3-and-5-magic-words/716388.md?page=3)