Using Established Medical Criteria to Define Disability: A Proposal to Amend the Americans with Disabilities Act

Abstract

The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination in employment, public services, and public accommodations against individuals with disabilities. The threshold question, however, of who is an individual with a disability has proven to be more complicated, contentious, and confusing than any of the ADA's drafters ever could have imagined. The law does not prohibit all discrimination based on disability, and it does not prohibit discrimination against all individuals with disabilities. Instead, it prohibits disability-based discrimination against a subset of individuals with disabilities who have "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits" the individual in one or more major life activities.javascript:void(0);

Keywords: Americans with disabilities act, ADA, disabilities, discrimination, definition of disability, amendments, medical criteria

JEL Classification: K31, K32