Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA")

The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) is a federal civil rights law designed to prevent discrimination and enable individuals with disabilities to participate fully in all aspects of society. The ADA applies to a person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (like walkering, sitting, standing, breathing, sleeping, etc). The ADA protects a person who is regarded (or treated by an employer) as if he or she has a substantially limiting impairment.

Employers with 15 or more employees are covered and required to follow the ADA. What is prohibited by the ADA is discrimination against individuals with a disability or preceived to have an impairment, discrimination against a person based on their relationship to a disabled individual, and retaliation or harassment for exercising their ADA rights.

Employers covered by the ADA have to make sure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to apply for jobs and to work in jobs for which they are qualified; have an equal opportunity to be promoted once they are working; have equal access to benefits and privileges of employment that are offered to other employees, such as employer-provided health insurance or training; and are not harassed because of their disability.

Major Life Activities: people who are deaf, blind, or use wheelchairs. People who have physical conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, HIV infection or severe forms of arthritis, hypertension, or carpal tunnel syndrome may be individuals with disabilities. People with mental impairments such as major depression, bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder, and mental retardation may also be covered. Protects a person with a record of a substantially limiting impairment such as; having a history of cancer that is now in remission. Other major life activities include breathing, seeing, hearing, sitting, standing, walking, learning, lifting, bending, reading, thinking, performing manual tasks, working, circulatory and reproductive functions, and many more. The ADA protects rehabilitated drug users, drug users currently in rehabilitation and alcoholics. The ADA does not protect current users of illegal drugs that are not in rehabilitation.

Employers must provide a reasonable accommodation to a disabled individual upon request. A reasonable accommodation can be a modification that allows the person to perform the job’s essential functions. An accommodation causing an undue hardship on the employer need not be provided.

The ADA does not allow the employer to ask questions about disability or use medical examinations until after they make someone a conditional job offer. After making a job offer, the employer may ask any disability related questions and conduct medical examinations as long as they do this for everybody in the same job category. The employer may withdraw a job offer from an applicant with a disability only if it becomes clear that he or she cannot do the essential functions of the job or would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of him or others. Reasonable accommodations must be assessed to see if the person could perform the job.

The ADA strictly limits the circumstances in which employers may ask questions about disability or require medical examinations of employees. Questions and exams are only permitted by employers where the employer has a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that a particular employee will be unable to perform essential job functions or will pose a direct threat because of a medical condition.

If an employer violates the ADA then the employee is entitled to back pay, compensatory damages (actual damages), punitive damages (to deter), and attorney’s fees.