ADA or The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil right law that protects disabled people from discrimination in the workplace with regard to hiring, job application procedures, promotion or discharge of employees, compensation, training and other privileges that an employee is entitled to. The definition of disability as per ADA is a physical or mental injury that impedes the major activities of one's life.
Whether a particular condition would come under ADA or not varies from case to case. Certain conditions which could be rectified by proper treatment do not come under ADA. For example, visual impairment that is corrigible with prescribed lenses, pregnancy and broken bones do not come under ADA. As per ADA, the disability must be permanent or chronic to impact a major activity of one's life. Temporary and minor ailments of less than six months are not deemed as disabilities. Major activities defined under ADA include standing, walking, seeing, hearing, eating, lifting, bending, sleeping, speaking, learning, reading, communicating, thinking, performing manual task and working. According to ADA, an employee or applicant with a disability is a qualified individual who can perform the necessary duties of the job in question with or without reasonable accommodation.
ADA has improved the life of the employees with disabilities. The people who would have otherwise lived on benefit programs or compensation are employed now. As per statistics, 25.4% of employees with a disability are employed out of which 22.7% are employed for full time. According to the critics of ADA, the law has imposed a financial burden on the employers in terms of providing reasonable accommodation. But the proponents believe that most of the accommodations are inexpensive. Some employers have established ADA coordinator or reasonable accommodation committee to look after the accommodation needs of the disabled employees.
Works Cited
1. Facts About the Americans with Disabilities Act, September 9, 2008. Retrieved on 7th April 2013 from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html
2. The Effects of the ADA, Retrieved on 7th April 2013 from http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/ada/ch2.htm
