The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the Workplace Essay

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) “prohibits discriminating against an individual in the selection process” (Moran, 2014, p. 32) due to a potential disability. A disability can be defined as a mental or physical condition that can result in some sort of handicap. As a result, the employer may be required to accommodate the people who are considered as disabled, to help them perform his or her job duties.

The Americans with Disabilities Act provides civil rights to those who are disabled. The ADA guarantees equal opportunity to those individuals who are disabled in the work force and with the state and local government. The ADA will ensure that people with disabilities are not discriminated against when it comes to hiring, firing and advancements. The employer must provide certain accommodations for those with disabilities, but only if it does not cause them undue hardship.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of the most significant laws in American History. Before the ADA was passed, employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the person's physical disability, they were turned away or released from a job. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The act guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications. The ADA not only opened the door for

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination based upon their disability (Bennett-Alexander, 2001). The protection extends to discrimination in a broad range of activities, including public services, public accommodations and employment. The ADA's ban against disability discrimination applies to both private and public employers in the United States.

People with disabilities suffer discrimination such as the refuse of companies to hire those peoples. An estimated 386 million of the world’s working-age persons have some kind of disability, according to ILO. In a recent research, they found that two-third of the unemployed and disable persons said that they would like to work but they could not find jobs.

Individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including intentional exclusion from certain work areas, that denies them the opportunity to compete on an equal basis and to pursue those opportunities that guarantees success in the society. To guarantee success there is expectation regarding the relationship between the employer and employee, giving close attention to the various factors that should be considered to make the person with disability successful. This paper outlines the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the terms and conditions covering employees and employers as stated in Title 1. Title 1, as amended by the ADA amendment 2008, states that no covered entity will discriminate against a qualified individual based on disability (EEOC, 2015).

According to Gary Dessler, “employers with 15 or more workers are prohibited from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities with regard to applications, hiring, discharge, compensation, advancement, training, or other terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. It also says that employers must make ‘reasonable accommodations’ for physical or mental limitations unless doing so imposes an ‘undue hardship’ on the business.” It not only prohibits discrimination in employment but also outlaws most physical barriers in public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and government services.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as Public Law 101-336, is a civil rights law. It makes it illegal to discriminate based on disability in several different areas of life. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in: employment, services rendered by state and local governments, places of public accommodation, transportation, telecommunications services. The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations. The ADA’s nondiscrimination standards also apply to federal sector employees under section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, and its implementing rules. http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html

The American Disabilities Act is a federal civil rights law for people with disabilities, comparable to civil rights law passed in the 1960’s for other minorities, not just veterans. It covers employment, state, and local government services, public accommodations, and telecommunications for the deaf. Although an employer can still hire the most qualified person for the job as long as the disability is not used to disqualify a person, the ADA is still needed to protect and lessen confusion for the disabled and normal people. An employer is not required to provide the most expensive accommodation or the accommodation that the employee prefers, but it must allow the employee

disabilities and respond to government regulations and guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Additionally, the policy will not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities concerning application procedures, hiring, advancement, discharge, compensation (or benefits), training or other terms, conditions and privileges of employment.

One of the current social policies in place that protect the rights of the Deaf and hearing impaired is the Americans with Disabilities Act. (The Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990 ) The ADA is a body of laws and policies that bans discrimination against those with disabilities. This includes the deaf and hearing impaired population. The ADA has four sections that cover: employment, public accommodations, government and telecommunications. In order to be compliant with the ADA, employers are compelled to inquire about the types of accommodation needs the deaf employee has so that they may work alongside others with the least amount of distractions or interruptions.

The common theme throughout the ADA is the unsuccessful ability to close the gap in employment for people with disabilities. A change that could be recommended to increase hiring individuals is having companies be held accountable for diversity in the workplace. Under Affirmative Action, companies use internal audits and reporting systems as a means to measure an employer's diversity in the workplace (About Affirmative, 2015). However, workplaces are not required to track or report on people with disabilities who have applied and were not hired. By making it a law for companies to report on why they did not hire a person or who they did hire can help track if companies are favoring one person's ability over another.

    A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.

Rule: According to (Moran, 2014), reasonable accommodations for disabilities include, having a work site accessible and modifying equipment and changing work schedules. In the job accommodation is a rational adjustment to a work environment, which makes it possible for any individual with a disability in order to perform specific duties (www.dol.gov). Disability discrimination occurs when an employer makes up for more than 15 employees in terms of making noticeable employment actions that affect an individual who has also had an impairment that limits any major life activities (Moran, 2014),

Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers with fifteen or more employees are prohibited from discriminating against people with disabilities. Furthermore, the employment provisions of the Act require that employers provide equal opportunity in selecting, testing, and hiring qualified applicants with disabilities, job accommodations for applicants and workers with disabilities when such would not impose due hardship, and equal opportunity in promotion and benefits. (United States Department of Labor). If an employer is found liable for such discrimination, the fines can be extremely high. Therefore, it is important to know the definition of disability as determined by the ADA. A disability is a physical or mental impairment that essentially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual, a record of having such impairment, or being regarded as having such impairment (Bennett-Alexander and Hartman) and the individual should be able to prove such factors to establish a prima facie case in court. Despite of these definitions, a disability is determined based on the effect the impairment