The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted to prevent particular types of discrimination against individuals with disabilities.The areas in which this protection occurs are employment, housing, public transportation, education, and other areas. The Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as ADA, has provided many benefits in many areas of life to individuals living with disabilities.
Employment includes all aspects of being a member of the work force, including applying, hiring, promotion, compensation, training, and more. The ADA makes discrimination in any of those areas unlawful and requires that reasonable accommodations be made for an employee with disabilities. Thanks to the ADA, employees with disabilities cannot be fired, overlooked for promotion, or required to go through extra hoops, such as a medical exam not required of other employees, due to a disability. Additionally, this means that an employee in need of a reasonable, non-disruptive accommodation during application, hiring, training, or employment must receive that accommodation.
Under the ADA, individuals with disabilities must have equal access to public entities, which includes all public facilities and transportation. Accommodations that have been required to allow access include wheel chair ramps, the installation of elevators, technology for individuals with sensory deficits, interpreters, handicap-accessible restrooms, and more. These public access aids have allowed individuals with disabilities to participate equally in public activities and public entities such as schools, courthouses, and more.
Within the ADA, there are also descriptions of what constitutes a disability. The broadening of the definition has provided protection to individuals who were previously not covered under the existing standards of the law.
Naturally, there are some activities, particularly in the area of employment, that have physical or mental requirements that individuals with or without disabilities might fail to meet. However, it is the goal of the ADA to substantially limit the legality of discriminating against an individual with a disability. The law is regarded almost as an extension of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, sex, religion, and other characteristics illegal. The ADA was intended to afford those same protections to individuals living with physical or mental disabilities.