Americans with Disabilities Act ^87 ^511

In July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. It is an ambitious federal measure that safeguards the civil rights of individuals with disabilities.

Who Is Protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act?

The ADA protects individuals with disabilities against discrimination in certain critical areas of daily living. These areas include protections for health services, employment, communication, public accommodations, education, and transportation. Disability is defined broadly to include physical and mental impairments that substantially limit one or more major life activities of an individual. A person who has a record of either a physical or a mental impairment or a person who is regarded as having such an impairment also is considered as having a disability.

Although it is impossible to enumerate all of the impairments that are covered by the ADA, the list includes the following: visual, speech, and hearing impairments; epilepsy; muscular dystrophy; heart disease; cancer; human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) (symptomatic or asymp­tomatic); tuberculosis; mental retardation; cosmetic disfigurement; ana­tomical loss; alcoholism; or emotional or mental illness. There also are a number of conditions that are specifically defined as not disabilities under the ADA. These include current use of illegal drugs, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, and sexual behavioral disorders.

Employment Obligations

The antidiscrimination employment provisions of the ADA apply to all employers who have 15 or more employees on staff. To summarize, employers are prohibited from discriminating against a job applicant or an employee currently on staff who is a “qualified individual with a disabil­ity.” All aspects of employment practices are covered by the law, including job application procedures, hiring, job advancement, compensation, ben­efits, and discharge.

Who Is a “Qualified Individual With a Disability?”

A qualified individual with a disability is defined as “an individual who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essen­tial functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires.” In essence, an employer cannot deny a qualified individual with a disability a job or discharge such an employee based on the individual’s disability.

An employer also is prohibited from discriminating against an individ­ual because the person is known to have a relationship with a person with a disability. For instance, an employer cannot reject a potential employee solely on the basis that the applicant’s spouse has multiple sclerosis and the employer fears that the applicant may not be able to devote full atten­tion to the position.

What Is a Reasonable Accommodation?

An employer also must make reasonable accommodations to assist an individual with a disability in performing a job, unless such accommoda­tions would impose an undue hardship on the business. What comprises a reasonable accommodation varies with the circumstances. A reasonable accommodation could mean that an employer would have to make the office readily accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities. An employer also may be required to restructure an employee’s assignments or modify the employee’s work schedule as a reasonable accommodation.

The ADA does not require employers to hire unqualified individuals with disabilities. It permits businesses to use selection criteria or standards that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability as long as the criteria are shown to be job related for the position, are consistent with business necessity, and the job functions cannot be accomplished by reasonable accommodations.

Public Accommodations

A “public accommodation” is defined broadly by the ADA as a privately operated entity that owns, operates, or leases a place of public accommoda­tion.

Are Physicians Required to Treat All Patients?

Antidiscrimination protections in the ADA prohibit a business that fits the definition of public accommodations from establishing criteria that would screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability. The ADA also requires businesses to make reasonable modifications for individuals with disabilities. This makes it discriminatory for physicians to deny care to an individual based solely on the individual’s disability. For example, an obstetrician-gynecologist would be in violation of the ADA if the physician established a rule denying care to obstetric patients with HIV. If, however, this same physician no longer practiced obstetrics and referred all pregnant women to other physicians, the physician would be under no obligation to care for this patient. A physician is not required to treat a patient with a condition outside the physician’s area of practice or expertise.

A physician also is not required to provide services to an individual with a disability if the individual poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others. A “direct threat” is a significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated by a modification of policies, practices, or pro­cedures or the provision or auxiliary aids and services. Physicians have to be careful, however, that a decision not to provide care is based on objec­tive criteria relying on current medical evidence rather than stereotypes or generalizations about the effects of a particular disability.

Auxiliary Aids

Physicians also are required to provide and pay for auxiliary aids and services to communicate effectively with patients who have disabilities affecting hearing, vision, or speech, unless such accommodations create an undue burden.

Other Provisions

Businesses are required to make readily achievable structural changes to their facilities to make them more accessible to the individuals with a dis­ability. New construction also must be in compliance with the ADA. There are federal tax deductions for some expenses associated with removal of barriers and tax credits for eligible small businesses that make certain accommodations required by the ADA.

Americans with Disabilities Act Resources

Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §12101 (2011). Available at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title42/pdf/USCODE-2011- title42-chap126.pdf. Retrieved September 20, 2013.

For more information about or assistance with the ADA contact the following:

ADA National Network

1-800-949-4232 (voice/TTY) http://adata.org

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

131 M Street, NE

Washington, DC 20507

202-663-4900

202-663-4494 (TTY) http://www.eeoc.gov

Federal Communications Commission

Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS)

445 12th Street SW

Washington, DC 20554

1-888-225-5322

1-888-835-5322 (TTY)

http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/telecommunications-relay-services-trs

Job Accommodation Network

1-800-526-7234

http://askjan.org

U.S. Department of Justice

Information and technical assistance on the Americans

With Disabilities Act

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Civil Rights Division

Disability Rights Section - NYA

1-800-514-0301

http://www.ada.gov

U.S. Department of Labor

Office of Disability Employment Policy

200 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20210

1-866-633-7365

1-877-889-5627 (TTY)

http://www.dol.gov/odep

United States Access Board

1331 F Street, NW

Suite 1000

Washington, DC 20004

1-800-872-2253

1-800-993-2822 (TTY)

http://www.access-board.gov