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The Americans with Disabilities Act
By mobilitytiger | July 18, 2008
In 1990 President George Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. It is aimed at preventing discrimination towards those who are mobility challenged.
The ADA covers several areas and makes discriminating against someone who is disabled illegal. A disability is defined as a physical impairment which greatly limits life activity. Often whether someone is considered disabled is taken on a case by case basis. There are also some conditions, such as substance abuse, which are not covered.
There are 4 main sections that ADA Addresses:
Employment: This section states that an employer is not allowed to discriminate against a qualified person due to a disability. This applies to all parts of the work process including hiring, training, and workers compensation. If medical screening is required, it is only allowed if everyone must take it and the record will be treated as a confidential medical record.
Public Services and Transportation: This section ensures that people who are mobility challenged are able to access public areas and transportation. This is applied to railroads and all other commuter services. This is meant to apply to federal, state, or local government authorities.
Public Accommodations: This ensures that no person will be denied goods, services, facilities, or accommodations because of a disability. This includes hotels, dining, and stores. One of the parts of this section deals with the failure to remove architectural barriers to those who are mobility challenged. Anything built after the ADA was passed must adhere to the ADA standards, but even if the building or facility has not been modified since the passage of the ADA, it is still must adhere to ADA standards when possible.
Telecommunications: This requires that all telecommunications companies in the United States ensure that those who are disabled have the ability to access services that are basically equivalent to those traditionally offered. In large part this is geared towards ensuring that the deaf are still offered a way of communicating over the phone.
Topics: health information |