Amendments to Americans with Disabilities Act Seeks to Restore Equal Legal Footing for Disabled in Employment and other areas

September 30, 2008 – Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago applauds the passage of the ADA Amendments Act.  Access Living  is Chicago’s only center for cross-disability independent living. President Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act into law on Thursday, September 25.  The law, which was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and by voice vote in the House earlier this month, restores civil rights to Americans with disabilities in the workplace.

“We are extremely proud and happy about the successful bipartisan effort to steer the Americans with Disabilities Act back to the course Congress originally intended it to fulfill,” said Marca Bristo, Access Living’s President and CEO.  “Passage of the law represents three years of negotiations between the business community and the disability community who both worked hard together to come up with a joint solution that works for both communities.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, and was signed into law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush.  The Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws have given people with disabilities opportunities to work, raise families, go to school, and share in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Since passage of the ADA, several Supreme Court decisions have severely narrowed the scope of the law.  As a result of these decisions, people with disabilities have been denied protection from employment discrimination. In 2004, plaintiffs lost 97% of ADA employment discrimination claims that went to trial.  The newly adopted ADA Amendments Act overturns the four Supreme Court decisions that have inappropriately narrowed the protections of the ADA.

The new law comes at a time when unemployment remains very high for people with disabilities.  “These amendments will restore to many people with disabilities their rights,” added Bristo.  The law will “level the playing field, allowing people with disabilities the tools to pursue the same opportunities as others in employment and other important areas.”

***