Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

[Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

Introduction

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed by George W. Bush, the former president of the US, on July 26, 1990 (Parmet, 1990). This law is one of the most widespread national human rights statues which are defending the human rights of the public with disabilities and impairments. ADA also acts as a promise of opportunity in various different areas such as access to employment, to education, to transportation and places of public accommodation, telecommunications and others, for the people with disabilities. It also protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination against them in any step of their lives (Moss & Malin, 1998). Each and every law has an influence over the other. This law for disability (ADA) was influenced by the former Rehabilitation Act in various different aspects; such as the government believed the Rehabilitation Act was not adequate enough to finish the extensive discrimination against the people with disabilities which was prevailing in this country (United States) (Lee, 1997).

The American with disabilities act and the administrative regulations which pursed behind it have the qualities to seize massive realistic and hypothetical prospective. The description of the American Disabilities Act has been drawn on a very large scale. The Act does not only sticks to the “traditional disabled” like the sightless, the deafened, and mute or individuals on mobility impairments, but it also includes individuals who had chronic diseases or Stigmatizing medical conditions such as Diabetes, epilepsy, or obesity. It also protected individuals who have a former account of impairments such as the survivors of cancer or other end of life disease survivors, who the employers may not be willing to hire because of the high costs which will go to their medical bills or because of incapability which might occur again in future (Kruse & Schur, 2003). This Act also covers individuals, who are not disabled and have never been disabled in their life, but were believed like, individuals with HIV or people with hereditary predisposition towards a specific disease. The ADA not only covers impairments and disabilities which were only physical but it also covers mental disabilities as well, which in the American Society is considered as one of the most stigmatizing medical conditions (Do, 2011).

Discussion

The primary scope of the ADA is to address the existing obstacles of participation by individuals with disabilities in the society which are faced by hundreds of disabled people. The civil rights provided to the individuals by the ADA are parallel to those which have been formed previously by the government for women and racial, ethnic and religious minorities. ADA is exclusively about 'equal opportunity', for each and every individual irrespective of their disabilities. Similarly, like other statues of civil rights, ADA also forbids the discrimination against disable people in the fields of employment, different services, goods, or other opportunities (Bagenstos, 2009). ADA protects the rights of disabled such as if any individual is discriminated against his/her boss for the reason of his ...