New Amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act
Last month, President Bush signed into law new amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (”ADA”). The amendments were a bipartisan effort and compromise between disability rights groups and business groups, including the Society for Human Resources Management, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers. Overall, Congress made clear its legislative intent of the amendments: to reject certain holdings in Supreme Court decisions that limited the application of the ADA to certain individuals, and to expand coverage of the ADA by making it easier for individuals with disabilities to qualify for protection under the ADA.
The text of the amendments specifically references Congress’ goal of rejecting the Supreme Court’s holdings in Sutton v. United Air Lines Inc. and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams. In general, Congress felt that those decisions narrowed the scope of the ADA with respect to who qualified as “disabled” and was therefore protected from discrimination based on disability. Congress also expressed its expectation that the regulations promulgated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will be revised to include this broader definition of “disability.”
To expand upon the definition of “disability,” the amendments kept the ADA’s general definition that a “disability” is a 1) “physical or mental impairment” that “substantially limits” the “major life activities” of the individual; 2) a record of an impairment; or 3) being “regarded as” having an impairment. However, the amendments provide greater guidance of how “major life activities” are defined by including two non-exhaustive lists of such activities. Specifically, “major life activities” which may be substantially limited by an impairment (and therefore qualify as a disability under the Act) include: caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working. While some of these have always been recognized as major life activities under the ADA, some, like reading, bending, and communicating, have not. Further, the amendments list “major bodily functions” that are also considered major life activities as: “functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions.”
The other primary change in the amendments is to instruct courts with rules regarding how to determine if someone has a disability under the Act. These instructions include a directive that the question of whether someone is disabled under the Act “shall not demand extensive analysis,” and that courts should construe the Act to provide “broad coverage” of individuals. In addition, the amendments clarify that an impairment that is episodic or in remission, such as cancer, which was previously treated as an impairment that was not a disability under the Act when in remission, is now to be considered as if the impairment was active. Moreover, now impairments should not be considered with regard to their mitigating measures, such as medication or assistive technology, except for “ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses.” This change may allow individuals with insulin-controlled diabetes to potentially be covered under the ADA.
So what does this mean for employers? As the ADA prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s disability, now more employees may qualify as disabled under the ADA and may request reasonable accommodations to perform their jobs. Particularly with respect to the amendments related to mitigating measures and episodic impairments, requests may come from employees who were never previously known to have impairments. Now is a good time to familiarize yourselves with the requirements of the ADA, including the interactive process and reasonable accommodations.
