How to Interpret the Disability Rights Act

The “Disability Rights Act” is a colloquialism for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or the “ADA,” and more recently enacted, the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act or the “ADA Amendment Act.”  Interpreting the original ADA and the subsequent law which interprets and alters the original ADA such as the ADA Amendment Act which was itself amended to interpret and alter the former ADA Amendment Act and all of the State and federal case law allegedly interpreting and defining ADA individual and business rights and resultant regulations is a seriously daunting task which is best left to judges’ law clerks who are already wearing extremely thick corrective eye glasses. 

ADA Amendment Act re-interprets the ADA

The disability rights act or the Americans with Disabilities Act as now interpreted by the ADA Amendment Act imposes some very sweeping and significant changes to rights and responsibilities provided by the original ADA.  For example ADA in defining a recognizable disability required that the disability at issue be an impairment regarding some “major life activity.”  Many courts interpreted what a “major life activity” should include but all of that considerable case law has been now preempted by the ADA Amendment Act which clarifies the phrase interpretation to include a broad range of disabled individuals to the maximum extent permitted by law.  Examples of major life activities covered would be learning, reading, writing, thinking, and major body functions such as reproduction, cell growth and immune system function.  The ADA Amendment Act also re-interprets the three prong test for a covered disability. 

Under the ADA Amendment Act a disabled person must be able to establish that even with the disability he or she could perform the duties of a job or potential job with or without a reasonable accommodation facilitating the accomplish those duties.  Courts are extensively examining that rule and producing interpreting case law concerning that one point alone.  The general picture is that interpreting and applying the ADA and ADA amendments is a complicated task best left to legal professionals.  The general American disabled population is going to be confused about their rights and businesses will be similarly unclear as to their responsibilities to disabled clients and employees. 

Getting Legal Help

Trying to interpret disability rights act rights and responsibilities for both individuals and businesses is a task that in not for the do-it-yourself legal rights researcher.  This can be a complicated area of law that is best left to those that have spent many years reviewing and studying the rights and responsibilities regulated and affected by this very sweeping legislation.  Contacting an experienced disability lawyer to discuss you disability circumstances would be the best course to take if you are an employee that believes he has suffered discrimination in the workplace or if you are an employer that wants to prevent instances of illegal disability discrimination in the workplace.