The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with physical or mental disabilities from discrimination in employment, housing, education, and public services. Employers must provide support systems for people with disabilities, and public places must be accessible. However, historic buildings are exempt from some ADA standards. The ADA also requires appropriate communication technologies for people with disabilities. The ADA has received criticism, but it has made businesses and public spaces more accessible for people with disabilities.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is a congressional bill that was signed into law by the first President Bush in 1990. The ADA is designed to protect people with physical or mental disabilities from employment discrimination , housing, education and all other public services. According to the ADA, a disability is characterized as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one of the major activities of life.”
One of the ADA’s affirmations is that a workplace must not discriminate against a qualified applicant on the basis of a disability. This rule applies to all aspects of employment, including job applicants, advancement, termination, and worker compensation, among others. Employers must make all reasonable efforts to provide adequate support systems for people with disabilities.
The ADA also includes sections devoted to public services and public accommodations, which include public transportation such as buses or trains, and businesses such as salons or bookstores. The ADA stipulates that any public place must allow a person with a disability to access and enjoy the benefits of the services provided. In many cases, lawsuits are brought under this title because a business is not ‘accessible’, ie does not provide adequate means of access for people with physical disabilities, such as wheelchair users.
However, buildings registered as historic places are generally not required to meet ADA standards. These establishments must make every effort to make the building accessible, but only to the extent that the original character of the building is not damaged in any way.
The final section of the ADA deals with telecommunications and states that appropriate communication technologies must be available to people with disabilities, especially those who are hearing or speech impaired. Because of this section of the ADA, teletype machines and other machines for people with disabilities were installed in public spaces in the early 1990s in the United States.
Since its inception, the ADA has received criticism from many groups and individuals for a variety of reasons. Some people say conditions like depression shouldn’t be covered by the ADA, and they don’t want to make accommodations for those conditions. Others fear that the ADA has increased the chances of litigation due to unintentional discrimination. Most of the complaints, however, likely come from people with disabilities themselves, who argue that the ADA has done little to enforce accessible buildings. Overall, however, ADA has contributed significantly to making businesses and public spaces in the United States more accessible to people with disabilities.
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