Americans with Disabilities Act
DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN HISTORY, 3rd Edition, Charles Scribner's Sons (an imprint of the Gale Group), Forthcoming
Posted: 14 Mar 2002
Abstract
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990 when Congress determined that the estimated 43 million disabled persons in the Unites States were a "minority...subjected to a history of purposeful and unequal treatment." The ADA prohibited private employers from disability-based discrimination if an individual could do a job's "essential functions" with or without "reasonable accommodations." The act also mandated accessibility and reasonable accommodations and prohibited disability-based discrimination in state and local government services, public transit, telecommunications, and public places (restaurants, stores, theatres, private schools, hospitals, and other entities offering the public goods and services). The ADA allowed exemptions if compliance would cause "undue hardship" because of excessive cost. Because the act imported a tripartite definition of disability from the Rehabilitation Act without also adopting the existing agency regulations which explicated that definition, the scope of ADA coverage remains unclear. Since 1998 the Supreme Court has decided an increasing number of cases under the act, with many of these decisions focusing on the question of who is "disabled" under the ADA.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation