April 19, 2011

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) final regulations to implement the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) are now available for public view on the Federal Register website at now available on the Federal Register website. The ADAAA went into effect on January 1, 2009.  In the ADAAA, Congress directed the EEOC to revise its regulations to conform to changes made by the Act, and expressly authorized the EEOC to do so. The ADAAA overturned several Supreme Court decisions that Congress believed had interpreted the definition of "disability" too narrowly, resulting in a denial of protection for many individuals with impairments such as cancer, diabetes, or epilepsy. The ADAAA states that the definition of disability should be interpreted in favor of broad coverage of individuals.  The effect of these changes is to make it easier for an individual seeking protection under the ADA to establish that he or she has a disability within the meaning of the ADA.

The ADAAA and the final regulations keep the ADA's definition of the term "disability" as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record (or past history) of such an impairment; or being regarded as having a disability.  But the law made significant changes in how those terms are interpreted, and the regulations implement those changes.

The ADAAA regulations, accompanying Question and Answer documents and a fact sheet are available on the EEOC website at
www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adaaa_info.cfm


This document was developed by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth, funded by a grant/contract/cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (Number#OD-16519-07-75-4-11).