Proving You're Disabled under the ADA (Part 1)

Under the ADA § 12102 (3), a person is disabled if he or she “has an actual 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, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.”

There are three requirements within the definition:

-a physical or mental impairment;

-a substantial limitation; and

            -effect on a major life activity.

We’ll focus in today’s blog (and in Part 2) on mental disabilities (e.g., cognitive impairments, developmental delays, mental illness, and learning disabilities) as a way of demonstrating both how the ADA has been viewed by the courts, and the sorts of hurdles that exist to defining oneself as disabled under the ADA.

Using two cases, Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) and Bartlett v. New York State Board of Law Examiners, 226 F.3d 69 (2nd Cir. 2000), we’ll compare the process of invoking a disabled legal-identity under the ADA with the way people with disabilities are barred from even claiming that legal-identity. This identity has not remained fixed, and even as case law has amassed regarding how disability should be understood, policy-makers are still in the process of revising the law to account for current social understandings and needs of individuals with disabilities.

The protections provided by the ADA are meant to give individuals with disabilities a legal remedy when they encounter discrimination in public spheres such as in employment services rendered by states, and public accommodation through more accessible design in environment and policy. Specifically in areas of employment and state services, the ADA codifies that if an individual is otherwise qualified for a position or services, then he or she may request reasonable accommodation from their employer or State. Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12117 (1994).

Reasonable accommodations can mean changing the organization of a position within a company, changing hiring practices that exclude individuals with disabilities, and/or modifying policies and services to make them more accessible for individuals with disabilities. Accommodation does not have to be made in all cases as the ADA also states that the accommodations must be reasonable.

If an accommodation causes an “undue hardship” for the entity, such that the modification would require “significant difficulty and expense,” then it would not be considered reasonable. Olmstead v. L.C. 98 US 536, 7.

The burden is on the individuals with disabilities to demonstrate that they satisfy one of the three criteria for defining disability under the ADA in order to file suit: impairment with substantial limitation of a major life activity, history of such an impairment, or perception of having an impairment. 

For individuals with disabilities to even use the ADA, he or she must adopt at least one of these three identities defined under the law, and must prove themselves disabled under ADA definitions. As the cases we’ll look further at in Part 2 demonstrate, this can be a tricky task.