09 October 2008

Protections for America’s Disabled Workers Expanded Under New Law

President Bush signs law amending landmark Americans with Disabilities Act

By Louise Fenner
Staff Writer

Washington — A new law restores workplace protections for the disabled that had eroded as a result of several Supreme Court decisions issued since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990.

The ADA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush on September 25, clarifies and broadens the definition of disability and expands the population eligible for protection under the ADA.

A week after signing the act, Bush proclaimed October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month to recognize the contributions of people with disabilities to American society and its workforce.

Enacted during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father, the Americans with Disabilities Act was a landmark civil rights bill aimed at eliminating discrimination against individuals who have physical or mental impairments. In 1990 there were 43 million such individuals, according to congressional estimates. The National Organization on Disability, an advocacy group, says that today some 54 million Americans have some sort of disability. (See “Americans with Disabilities Act Transforms Lives.”)

The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with physical and mental disabilities in such areas as employment, public accommodations and transportation. It mandates that employers make “reasonable accommodations” for disabled individuals unless those accommodations impose an “undue hardship” on the employer.

Ultimately, the courts — sometimes the U.S. Supreme Court — have the authority to determine whether an individual is legally “disabled,” and whether an employer has obeyed the law. (See “Protections Under U.S. Disabilities Act Defined by Courts.”)

PROTECTION UNDER ADA AND ADA AMENDMENTS ACT

“In enacting the ADA, Congress recognized that physical and mental disabilities in no way diminish a person’s right to fully participate in all aspects of society, but that people with physical or mental disabilities are frequently precluded from doing so because of prejudice, antiquated attitudes, or the failure to remove societal and institutional barriers,” the ADA Amendments Act says.

It states that over the years, some Supreme Court and lower court decisions “narrowed the broad scope of protection intended to be afforded by the ADA, thus eliminating protection for many individuals whom Congress intended to protect.” Furthermore, regulations issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency, “express too high a standard” for determining when an impairment qualifies as a disability.

The ADA Amendments Act insists on a broad interpretation of the definition of disability, the EEOC points out in a notice summarizing the new law, which takes effect January 1, 2009. The law retains the ADA’s basic definition of disability as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities” of an individual, but it changes the way some terms, such as “substantially limits” and “major life activities,” should be interpreted. The EEOC has also been directed to revise its regulations.

President Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act in the company of his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

NATIONAL DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH

The National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2008 proclamation issued October 1 stresses the importance of “expanding employment opportunities and fighting false perceptions that hinder people living with disabilities from joining the workforce.”

It also takes note of President Bush’s New Freedom Initiative, a plan announced in 2001 to help integrate Americans with disabilities more fully into the workforce, education system and community life. (See “New Freedom Initiative.”)

The resource site for the New Freedom Initiative is DisabilityInfo.gov, a comprehensive portal to federal government resources and information on disability issues. It was developed as a partnership of more than 20 federal agencies, but state governments and the nongovernmental sector are also represented.

Since 2002, the U.S. secretary of labor has presented the New Freedom Initiative Award to companies, individuals and nonprofits that have taken steps to hire and improve the workplace environment for people with disabilities. Honorees include industry giants — among them, Microsoft, Dow Chemical, PepsiCo and Lockheed Martin — as well as small businesses. (See “How One Company Approaches Disability“ and “Wood Products Company Throws Open a Door to the Disabled.”)

“People with disabilities are the next great wave of diversity [in the workplace], and diversity fosters innovation to drive our economy and our nation into the future,” says Neil Romano, assistant secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the Department of Labor.

“Having people with disabilities in the workplace is valuable to the individual and to businesses.”

Find information on the Office of Disability Employment Policy  and the White House’s New Freedom Initiative.

The Library of Congress has a Web site dedicated to National Disability Employment Awareness Month.  

See President Bush’s proclamation on the 18th anniversary of the ADA and on National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2008.

See the federal portal to information on the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the text of the 1990 ADA. The text of the ADA Amendments Act is available on govtrack.us.

See Diversity and the eJournal USA Disability and Ability, as well as a photo gallery on Building on the Progress of the ADA.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)