What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination based on disabilities under certain circumstances. Its five titles provide individuals with disabilities parallel human rights the Civil Rights Act of 1964 afforded those who had been discriminated based on sex, religion, and race.

Title I of ADA focuses on equal opportunity employment practices. It requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions. Reasonable accommodations include making facilities usable and accessible by individuals with disabilities. Further, reasonable accommodations include but are not limited to job structuring, the acquisition of equipment and devices, modified schedules, modifications to examinations or training materials, and the provision of qualified readers or interpreters. Title I implicated that job descriptions be rewritten to include bias free language and to include essential and marginal functions.

Title II provisions apply to the programs and services of all state and local government entities. According to Title II, no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs or activities of a public entity. The public entity must be accessible to qualified individuals with disabilities. State universities and other public places had to be renovated to comply with the provisions. In addition, Title II seeks to ensure that people with disabilities have access to existing public transportation services. All new buses must be accessible.