CHICAGO -- The October deadline to file annual reports mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act came and went last year with little note at Walls Transportation Tours.

Not this October.

Thats because the small Chicago-based bus operator received a notice from the U.S. Department of Justice that it was in violation of ADA requirements, including not filing its annual reports, and faced a fine hefty enough to shut the business down.

"No, they had not been filed. I guess I had a poor understanding at the time," a company spokeswoman said.

"When people call us for vehicles, we never had anyone call and ask for wheelchair accessibility. Because we had never had those calls come in, I was unaware of how the filing should have been done."

The company, which doesnt have an ADA-accessible coach for its charter operation, also lacked an agreement with another carrier to arrange for accessible service if a disabled person did call and want service, and it did not have an employee training program on how to handle calls from and deal with passengers with disabilities, according to the government officials.

The company took quick action to correct the problems after it received the notice from the Justice Department, including instituting an employee training program and partnering with a Chicago-area operator that has wheelchair lift-equipped motorcoach, the Walls spokeswoman said.

She also schooled herself on the ins-and-outs of ADA-related paperwork.

She now knows, for instance, that the filing deadline is the last Monday in October -- a choice of dates that continues to confound and irk her.

"Whoever came up with that deadline has no clue," she said. "With everything else, and all the other filings you have to keep up with, to pick the (last) Monday in October is like youre setting companies up."

Walls signed a settlement agreement with the Justice Department in January, and avoided having to pay a fine, which can range as high as $10,000 for ADA-related violations.

The spokeswoman said she could not recall the exact amount of the penalty the company faced, but she characterized it as "some ridiculous number that would have shut us down."

"I understand the need for (the ADA). I really do," she said. "But I also understand on the flip side what happens in a smaller company that is trying to survive.

"If you were fined that heavily it would put people out of work. That could happen."