A Guide To Disability Law In The USAmericans with disabilities are protected under the disability law namely Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. This Act bans discrimination against persons having physical or mental disabilities in the matter of housing, education, employment, or access to public services. The Act defines a disability as either a substantially limiting mental or physical impairment that restricts a disabled person from carrying out major life activities. As per the Act, disability can also refer to a record of such impairment or it can refer to the person who is beset with such impairment. An important aspect of this disability law is that while it includes protection to alcoholics under the Act, it excludes pedophiles, transvestites, compulsive gamblers, and pyromaniacs from its purview. It however requires that reasonable accommodation be made to provide equal opportunities to disabled individuals. The agencies that enforce the disability law in the US include the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The above US federal disability law allows states to pass disability laws in so far as they are consistent with the ADA. The Fair Housing Act, the Air Carrier Access Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Rehabilitation Act all provide support to ADA. They do this by defining and providing the respective protection against area-specific discrimination towards disabled individuals. The Fair Housing Act bans discrimination towards disabled persons in the matter of denying, renting, or selling housing to them. This Act makes it mandatory for house owners to make housing policies that provide equal opportunities to disabled persons to enable them to buy or rent houses. The Rehabilitation Act bans discrimination towards disabled persons in federal assistance programs, in federal employment, and in employment policies of federal contractors. The standards under this Act are similar to those mooted in ADA. The Air Carrier Access Act makes it mandatory for various airline companies to institute policies that foster equal opportunity to qualified disabled persons in boarding flights and seating in such flights. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that public schools in the US extend the service of free education to all otherwise eligible disabled children without any restrictions whatsoever. Employment related discrimination cases must be filed before the EEOC by the individuals concerned within 180 days of the discrimination. Alternatively, if such a protest is filed before a state or local fair employment practice agency the deadline is within 300 days of the discrimination. It is only after receiving a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC that a disabled individual can file an employment discrimination suit in a federal court. Similar claims of disabled persons in respect of violations of other aspects of disability law must be brought before the Department of Justice. It will then bring a lawsuit against the violators if it is not able to get the issue resolved after due investigations. |