Americans with Disability Act Its Effects on the Hospitality Industry

Americans with Disability Act Its Effects on the Hospitality Industry

Introduction

The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the most important regulations in the history of American. This act gives civil rights fortifications to persons with disabilities in open adjustments, state and local government services, employment, transportation and telecommunications; this is comparable with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevented discrimination on the basis of color, national origin, race, sex, religion and age. Previous to this act being passed, employers were at liberty to disallow employment of a disabled worker, purely on the basis that he or she was disabled, but the ADA prohibited this type of prejudice and unfair by launching rules and regulations intended to protect people with disabilities. The American with Disabilities Act's ban against disability discrimination is applicable in both private and public employment sectors in the US.

Discussion

The American with Disabilities Act assures equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities. It disallows employer discrimination in opposition to competent people with a disability with regards to application procedures, employing and dismissal, promotions, wages, training, circumstances, and rights of employment (Perritt, 2003)). This applies to the complete array of employer-employee associations, which includes testing, labor duties, discipline, leave, benefits, and layoffs (Perritt, 2003). The Americans With Disabilities Act not only made it possible for millions of Americans to get back into the workplace, but it is making way for new amenities in the workplace, new training plans and programs, and creating jobs designed for a disabled society.

Not all people with disabilities are protected by the ADA. To be included in this protection, individuals with disabilities must prove that they are qualified for the job they want to apply for. They have to establish that they can carry out the necessary purpose of that job with or without rational modifications, and they must have a disability that significantly limits them and show that they have suffered discrimination because of the disability.

With the labor pool growing at a much slower pace than in the past, Human Resource Management will have to tap into the disabled market. In 2005, the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability reported statistics that said only 12.6% of people, who were at the working age, had reported one or more disabilities and only 38.1% of those people were actually employed (Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, & Kulkarni, 2008). This meant that roughly 60% of people with disabilities were unemployed. This team set out to find out why some employers do not hire people with disabilities so they conducted interviews with various employers. They found seven reasons as to why employers were reluctant in hiring people with disabilities (Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, & Kulkarni, 2008).

Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, & Kulkarni (2008) found the following:

Employers stated that they were concerned that disabled people, may absence necessary understanding, abilities, and abilities; may make protection problems may not be able to execute intense tasks; may improve medical wellness care costs; may impact clients negatively, may sue for ...