Disability Rights Law: Ensuring Fairness Against Discrimination

Federal and state laws protect people with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities from discrimination in employment, public accommodations, education, and transportation. Those who face disability discrimination can file a claim with their state or federal agency and may be able to sue.

If you face discrimination because of your disability status, you have legal options. Contact a local discrimination lawyer to understand your legal rights.

Federal Protections Under the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is the primary federal law protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of disability. Congress enacted the ADA to ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights as people without disabilities in everyday contexts. Disability protections extend to employment, access to stores, and transportation.

In response to U.S. Supreme Court decisions that limited the ADA’s scope, Congress updated the 1990 law with the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA). The Amendments clarified that courts should broadly interpret the ADA to cover as many people with disabilities as possible.

The ADA does not give an exhaustive list of specific disabilities. Instead, it broadly defines an individual with a disability as:

• A person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities
• A person who has a history or record of such an impairment
• A person perceived by others as having such an impairment

What Is a Major Life Activity?

Major life activities include a wide range of activities and bodily functions. Under the ADA, major life activities include the following:

• Seeing
• Hearing
• Speaking
• Sitting
• Standing
• Walking
• Eating
• Learning
• Performing manual labor
• Caring for oneself

What Does the ADA Cover?

The ADA has several sections or Titles that apply to different disability rights. ADA sections include:

• Employment
• Local and state government
• Public transportation
• Public accommodations
• Telecommunications

Title I of the ADA: Employment Discrimination

Employers with 15 or more employees must follow the ADA’s anti-discrimination requirements.

The protections offered by the ADA are effective even before the employment relationship begins. Employers cannot discriminate in recruiting and hiring. Employers cannot ask certain questions about a candidate’s disability until they make an offer of employment.

The employer must provide reasonable accommodations to perform the necessary work. Reasonable accommodations can include things like special work schedules and additional equipment.

Title II of the ADA: Local and State Governments

Title II of the ADA requires state and local governments to give qualified individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from public services. Types of government services include:

• Public education programs
• Government employment
• Recreation
• Health care
• Social services
• Access to courts
• Access to voting
• Access to town meetings

The U.S. Department of Justice enforces Title II violations.

Title II of the ADA: Public Transportation

Title II also applies to public transportation services, such as buses and rail transit systems.

These transportation systems cannot discriminate against disabled people. Transit agencies must make a good-faith effort to purchase or lease accessible vehicles.

Unless it would create an undue burden, systems must provide a paratransit system. Paratransit picks up and drops off people who are unable to use traditional public transportation.

Title III of the ADA: Public Accommodations

Title III of the ADA requires that private entities that own or lease a place of public accommodation make their accommodations available to persons with disabilities. Common public accommodations include:

• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Theaters
• Retail stores
• Commercial facilities

There cannot be any exclusion, segregation, or unequal treatment of people with disabilities. The ADA further requires certain architectural standards to make public accommodations accessible. Ramps are an example of building standards for disabled people.

Some businesses must modify their service procedures to accommodate people with disabilities.

Title IV of the ADA: Telecommunications

Title IV of the ADA mandates television and telephone common carriers to provide constant telecommunications relay services (TRS) for individuals with hearing or speech disabilities.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set minimum requirements for TRS devices. Effective communication requirements include teletypewriters (TTY) and Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf (TDD).

The Federal Fair Housing Act

Under the Fair Housing Act, it is unlawful for landlords or property owners to deny a person housing because of their disability. This law applies to both renting and buying.

Landlords must also allow people to make access-related modifications to their living space. The landlord will not be required to pay for these modifications, but they must allow the modifications to the property.

Landlords must also make reasonable exceptions to certain building policies. For example, blind tenants can have a service dog even when there is a no-pet policy.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) applies to public schools.

Public schools must make free and appropriate education available to students with disabilities. Education opportunities include providing the least restrictive environment possible for the student to learn. Schools may be required to provide aides or follow an education plan.

Who Enforces Disability Rights Laws?

Several agencies investigate and enforce disability anti-discrimination and civil rights laws. Federal government agencies that enforce nondiscrimination laws include:

• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Learn more about filing a discrimination complaint with the EEOC and related agencies.

State Legal Protections for People With Disabilities

Some state laws provide additional protections for individuals with disabilities. However, these state disability protections vary widely from state to state.

“Some states don’t have any human rights laws at all. In such states, you are limited either to federal statutes, which often provide only minimum protections, or there may be recourse under tort law—but sometimes employees are shut out completely,” says Nina T. Pirrotti, an employment and discrimination law attorney at Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti in New Haven, Connecticut.

“As for those states that do have human rights laws — Connecticut, where I practice, is one, as is New Jersey, California, and others — the federal law provides the minimum baseline you must abide by, but the state laws can be as robust as they choose to be,” she says.

For example, the ADA only applies to employers with 15 or more employees. So, if your employer is a small local business with only a few employees, it’s not covered by the ADA. “But in Connecticut, for example, under its Fair Employment Practices Act, you only need three employees in order to get protections,” says Pirrotti.

State laws not only apply to a wider range of businesses and employees, they often provide more robust legal protections and remedies.

“Even though the ADA has, over time, been amended to be more generous in terms of what constitutes a disability, the standard is still harder to meet under the ADA than it is under its state counterpart, which only requires a chronic impairment. So, while your disability might not meet the federal threshold, under state law, it might very well fall within the more generous definition of what constitutes a disability.”

Finding the Right Attorney for Your Needs

An experienced attorney will be able to evaluate your case and determine the appropriate cause of action. Lawyers provide many legal services to their clients. Beyond the initial consultation and assessment, disability advocacy lawyers can:

• Anticipate potential problems with your case and advise you on how to approach them
• Keep track of deadlines and file all the paperwork with the necessary courts and agencies
• Interview witnesses to support your disability discrimination claim

An attorney helps to protect your legal rights and gives you access to justice. Contact an experienced disability discrimination lawyer for legal advice about your case.