The Americans With Disabilities Act: Regulations, Technical Assistance Manual and Developing Case Law
| Publication year | 1994 |
| Pages | 807 |
| Citation | Vol. 23 No. 4 Pg. 807 |
1994, April, Pg. 807. The Americans With Disabilities Act: Regulations, Technical Assistance Manual and Developing Case Law
The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") was enacted nearly two years ago. Upon enactment, it applied to private employers with twenty-five or more employees. Effective July 26, 1994, it will be applicable to private employers with fifteen or more employees.(fn1) Regulations, interpretive comments which went into effect in 1991, are published in the Code of Federal Regulations.(fn2) On January 28, 1992, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), the federal agency charged with enforcement of the ADA, published a Technical Assistance Manual ("Manual") to provide employers with additional guidance on the meaning and applicability of the ADA. This article discusses some provisions of the regulations and the Manual, as well as relevant case law that has developed since the initial effective date of the ADA.(fn3)
Under the ADA, a person is disabled if that person has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or if that person has a record of such an impairment or is regarded as having such an impairment.(fn4) In general terms, the regulations describe "physical or mental impairment" as any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement or anatomical loss affecting the body.(fn5)
Simple physical characteristics such as eye or hair color, left-handedness or height or weight within a normal range are not impairments. A physical condition that is not the result of a physiological disorder, such as pregnancy, or a predisposition to a certain disease also would not be an impairment. Similarly, personality traits such as poor judgment, quick temper or irresponsible behavior are not themselves impairments. Environmental, cultural or economic disadvantages, such as lack of education or a prison record, also are not impairments. For example, the Manual distinguishes between illiteracy, which would not be an impairment covered by the ADA, with dyslexia, which would be covered by the ADA. Stress and depression are conditions that may or may not be considered impairments, depending on whether these conditions result from a documented physiological or mental disorder.(fn6)
Examples of persons who have a record of impairment, and thus are protected by the ADA, include persons with a history of cancer, heart disease or other debilitating illness, whose illnesses either are cured, controlled or in remission, as well as persons with a history of mental illness. This protection also extends to persons who may have been misdiagnosed or misclassified as having an impairment.
Some surprising conditions have been determined by courts to be disabilities. For example, in 1988 the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that compulsive gambling is a disability under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.(fn7) Other results have not been so surprising. The Massachusetts federal court ruled that stress symptoms were not a disability where the employee's stress level and temperament could not stand the safety-sensitive, higher pressure position of train dispatcher. The court also found that the employee's stress did not so disrupt the employee's life so as to limit substantially his ability to work.(fn8) In 1993, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that an employer's refusal to hire a morbidly obese person violated the Rehabilitation Act; a jury awarded the employee $100,000.(fn9)
To be considered "disabled," a person's physical or mental impairment must substantially limit one or more of his or her major life activities. Major life activities
The regulations list a number of factors to be considered in determining substantial limitation, such as the impairment's nature and severity, duration or expected duration and permanent or long-term impact. Some impairments, such as blindness, deafness, HIV infection or AIDS, are by their natures substantially limiting. Other impairments may be disabling for some individuals but not for others, depending on the impact on their activities. The determination as to whether an individual is substantially limited always should be based on the effect of an impairment on that particular individual's life activities.(fn11)
An employer is obligated to determine whether an applicant or employee is "substantially limited" as to the major life activity of "working." According to the regulations, substantially limited as it relates to working means any significant restriction "in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes as compared to the average person having comparable training, skills and abilities," but excludes an inability to perform a single, particular job.
The regulations list several additional factors to be considered in determining whether an individual is substantially limited in working, including impairment-related limitations on geographical access and on access to jobs, both similar and dissimilar to the particular job from which the employee has been disqualified by the impairment.(fn12) Sometimes a person may have two or more impairments, neither of which by itself substantially limits a major life activity, but together have that effect. In such a situation, the individual has a disability. Additionally, temporary, non-chronic impairments that do not last for a long time and that have...
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