The Americans With Disabilities Act

12 Pages 2900 Words

red legally disabled” (Holley, Jennings, Wolters, 2001, p. 424). At the time of the ADA’s passage in 1990, “two-thirds of people with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 64” were unemployed. However, “66 percent indicated that they would prefer to be employed” (Holley, Jennings, Wolters, 2001, p. 424). As Boone & Kurtz points out, “with the rising education level and the influence of the American with Disabilities Act, disabled people will be entering the workforce in increasing numbers” (1999, p. 314).
To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability, or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the life activity of such individual, or, a record of such an impairment, or, being regarded as having such an impairment” (D.O.L. 2003). The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.
Considerable controversy has occurred over the meaning and application of the term disabled person. The U.S. Supreme Court has clarified this controversy to some extent by ruling that persons with impairments that are correctable are not disabled within the meaning of the ADA. On June 22, 1999, the Supreme Court issued three decisions setting forth a narrowing view of the meaning of what is considered a disability. In Sutton v. United Airlines, the Court rejected the arguments on behalf of Suttons that “they were regarded as disabled because they were precluded from engaging in the major life activity of working in the job of global airline pilot”, which it considered a class of employment (Jentz, Miller, 2003, p. 938-939). The Court Pointed out that by its terms the ADA allows employers “to prefer some physical attributes over others and to establish physical criteria” for positions without being i...