September 26, 2008 — On Thursday September 25, 2008, President Bush signed the “ADA Amendments Act of 2008.” According to a statement from the Department of Labor the new law “clarifies and broadens the definition of disability and expands the population eligible for protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.”
For example, the courts had limited the class of protected individuals claiming they were “perceived as” being disabled or “regarded as” having a disability to persons who actually had a disability or history of a disability. The amendments eliminate the need for the individual to show that she or he had a disability or that the employer viewed the disability as “substantially limiting.”
The courts also had excluded from the definition of disability impairments that could be mitigated by medications or assistive devices. The new law requires employers to treat as disabilities most conditions in their unmitigated state. The expanded definition of disability also now includes “[a]n impairment that is episodic or in remission” if, when active, the impairment would substantially limit a major life activity.
The new law now includes an expansive list of “major life activities” and expands the definition of major life activities to include the operation of many major bodily functions, such as functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, and digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions.
The amendments take effect January 1, 2009. For more information, contact any member of our Workplace Law Practice Group.