Americans with Disabilities Act

ADA Compliance

The American with Disabilities Act, often shortened to ADA, is one of the most prominent and significant acts of legislation to come through Congress in the last half century when it comes to the protection and rights of people that are vulnerable. Of course, many people rightly point to Title VII and/or the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960's (and their subsequent amendments) but the ADA is right up there as well. Indeed, disabled Americans have been deemed to be worthy of the same basic rights that able-bodied people have when it comes to finding and retaining employment and that is precisely what the ADA was meant to address. While complying with the ADA may require the management of some employers to make accommodations for disabled employee who are otherwise qualified, these accommodations are generally not cumbersome and employers are required by law to provide said reasonable accommodations when the situation calls for it.

Analysis

The enforcement mechanism and basis for the ADA hinges on two words, those being "reasonable accommodations." Indeed, employers are not expected to put out great expense and tremendous effort to allow a disabled person to work for their company. However, smaller things that are somewhat or very easy to pull off are often expected. For example, if an employee has back issues and needs a special chair with lumbar support or something like that, the employer can allow the employee to use their own chair or they can provide one that meets the necessary specifications. If the height of a desk needs to be altered to make it useable and more practical for someone in a wheelchair, then that is another fairly easy thing that an employer can do to make work much easier and welcoming to an employee. Regardless, the ADA is but one of many laws that human resources and management professionals need to be mindful of when they are perusing applicants and working with existing employees (ADA, 2016).

The ADA has issued a "brief overview" of the law and who it applies to. Indeed, the protections and rules of the ADA apply if any of the following are applicable to an applicant or employee:

1) The person has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (ADA, 2016).

2) The person has an ongoing record and substantiation of said impairment (ADA, 2016).

3) The person is regarding as having an impairment (ADA, 2016).