Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Scope

The ADA was enacted in 1990 to address the problem of discrimination against individuals with disabilities in such critical areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation, institutionalization, health care, voting, and access to public services.

Regulatory citations

• None

Key definitions

• None

Summary of requirements

The ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a discrimination charge, or participated in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

The objectives of the Act are to:

• Eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities,
• Fully integrate them into American economic life, and
• Transfer the cost of supporting individuals with disabilities from the public to the private sector.

Title I of the ADA protects qualified individuals with disabilities from employment discrimination. In order to be protected by the ADA, an individual with a disability must be qualified to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, the essential functions of the job. The law requires employers (those with 15 or more employees) to reasonably accommodate the known physical or mental limitations of an individual with a disability, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business.