The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 (July 26, 1990), codified at 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., signed into law on July 26, 1990 by President George H. W. Bush. The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. Disability is defined "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity." The determination of whether a particular condition is a disability is made on a case by case basis. Certain specific conditions are excluded as disabilities, such as current substance abusers and transsexuality.

Structure

The ADA consists of three introductory sections and five titles:

• Introductory Sections
  • Table of Contents
  • Findings and Purposes
  • Definitions

Main Section

Title I - Employment

The ADA states that covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability. This applies to job application procedures, hiring, advancement or discharge of employees, worker's compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. Covered entity can refer to an employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee. Discrimination, among other things, includes limiting or classifying a job applicant or employee in an adverse way, denying employment opportunities to qualified persons, or not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of disabled employees. Employeers can use medical entrance examinations for applicants only if all applicants (regardless of a lack of any disabilities) must take it, and if it is treated as a confidential medical record. It should be noted that qualified individuals do not include any employee or applicant who is currently engaging in the illegal use of drugs.

Title II - Public Services (and public transportation)

Under this section of the ADS, no qualified individual with a disability shall be subjected to discrimination or excluded from the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity due to his or her disablity. A "public entity" can be any state or local government or any department or agency thereof. It also includes the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, along with all other commuter authorities. The lack of accessibility or certain services for the disabled can be considered discrimination, regardless of who it actually affects. For example, a lack of wheelchair accessibility in pasenger cars, or even the leasing of wheelchair inaccessible ones without a "good faith" attempt to lease wheelchair accessible ones is considered discrimination under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Title III - Public Accommodations (and Commercial Facilities)

Under Title III, no individual may be discriminated against on the basis of disability with regards to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation. "Public accommodations" include most places of lodging (such as inns and hotels), reacreation, transportation, education, and dining, along with stores, care providors, and places of public displays, among other things.

Title IV - Telecommunications

Title V - Miscellaneous Provisions

Groups who worked to pass the ADA

The ADA is notable because many disparate groups came together for a common purpose. In addition, other civil rights groups outside the disability community helped.

• AIDS Action Council
• AIDS National InterFaith Network
• American Civil Liberties Union
• American Foundation for the Blind
• Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT)
• Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Handicapped
• Association for Retarded Citizens
• Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
• Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• Dole Foundation
• Eastern Paralyzed Veterans of America
• Epilepsy Foundation of America
• Human Rights Campaign Fund
• Institution for Rehabilitation and Research
• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• Legal Action Center
• Mental Health Law Project
• National Association of the Deaf
• National Association of Developmental Disabilities Councils
• National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems
• National Center for Law and the Deaf
• National Council of Independent Living
• National Council on Disability
• National Disability Action Center
• National Easter Seals Society
• National Organization Responding to AIDS
• Paralyzed Veterans of America
• President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities
• Society for Accessible Travel & Hospitality
• Spina Bifida Association of America
• United Cerebral Palsy Association

Quote

On signing the measure, George H. W. Bush said,

"I know there may have been concerns that the ADA may be too vague or too costly, or may lead endlessly to litigation. But I want to reassure you right now that my administration and the United States Congress have carefully crafted this Act. We've all been determined to ensure that it gives flexibility, particularly in terms of the timetable of implementation; and we've been committed to containing the costs that may be incurred.... Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down."

[Emphasis added, see References for the URL]

Criticism

The ADA is frequent target of criticsim. For example, conservatives claim that lesser disabilities including clinical depression or minor neck or back pain (see neuropathy) are being accomodated when they should not be. Second, the ADA allegedly creates a class of "professional plaintiffs" who make a living out of collecting monetary damages from noncompliant businesses.

Even those who support the intent of the law worry that it might have unintended consequences. Among other arguments, they hypothesize that the Act creates additional legal risks for employers who then quietly avoid hiring people with disabilities to avoid this risk. And such researchers (e.g., DeLeire, 2000; Acemoglu & Angrist, 2001) claim to have documented a sharp drop in employment among the disabled after passage of the Act (see Schwochau & Blanck for counter arguments).

Others (see Schall, 1998) believe that the law has been ineffectual; presumably, even stronger legislation (or legislation that crafts a different reward structure) is needed to achieve the Act's intended goals.

Libertarians believe accommodation laws restrict the free market.

The ADA in Popular Culture

The ADA was the target of parody in mid-1997 after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its ADA guidelines in March. For example, The Onion satirized the ADA with an article about the passage of the "Americans with No Abilities Act," The Simpsons ran an episode in which Homer Simpson tried to become grossly obese so he would be exempt under the ADA from a mandatory workplace fitness program, and on an episode of the King of the Hill, Hank was forced by the ADA to hire a drug addict.

References

• Acemoglu, Daron & Angrist, Joshua D. (2001). Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Journal of Political Economy, volume 109 (2001), pages 915–957.
• Bush, George H. W., Remarks of President George Bush at the Signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Available on-line at http://www.eeoc.gov/ada/bushspeech.html.
• DeLeire, Thomas. (Autumn, 2000). The Wage and Employment Effects of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 693-715
• Hamilton Krieger, Linda, ed., Backlash Against the ADA: Reinterpreting Disability Rights Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
• Johnson, Mary. (2000). Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve & The Case Against Disability Rights. Louisville, KY: The Advocado Press.
• Schall, Carol M. (Jun 1998). The Americans with Disabilities Act--Are We Keeping Our Promise? An Analysis of the Effect of the ADA on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, v10 n3 p191-203.
• Schwochau, Susan & Blanck, Peter David. The Economics of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Part III: Does the ADA Disable the Disabled? BERKELEY JOURNAL OF EMPLOYMENT & LABOR LAW [Vol. 21:271]
• Switzer, Jacqueline Vaughn. Disabled Rights: American Disability Policy and the Fight for Equality. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.

See also

• Accessibility
• Disability rights movement
• List of disability rights activists — includes a list of people who helped pass the ADA
• List of anti-discrimination acts
  • Disability discrimination act

Related categories

• Category:Disability legislation
• Category:Rights of the disabled

ADA constitutionality-related cases

For cases determining the constitutionality of some of the ADA's provisions, see:

• Tennessee v. Lane
• Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett

External links

• Text of the Act
• Mises.org article:What Is Disabled?
• How ADA applies to Disability Discrimination
• ADA Resource Center
• Overview of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504: Update 2001
• Overview of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504
• Employment of People with Disabilities
• Accessible Web Design
• Testing Students with Disabilities
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act
• [Gaskin Class Member] A blog written by the mother of a class member in a statewide lawsuit regarding inclusion in education in Pennsylvania.