Americans with Disabilities Act ADA

President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, after years of activism, including the Capitol Crawl, when protesters left their wheelchairs and climbed the Capitol steps. Title I bars employers with 15 or more workers from discriminating against qualified people with disabilities and requires reasonable accommodations, such as modified schedules or equipment, unless they cause undue hardship. Title II covers state and local governments, and Title III covers businesses open to the public, such as stores, restaurants, hotels, and theaters.

The law requires new and renovated buildings to be accessible and barriers in older ones to be removed when readily achievable, and it led to curb cuts, ramps, accessible restrooms, captioning, and lift-equipped buses. After Supreme Court rulings narrowed who counted as disabled, Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 to restore broad coverage. In Olmstead v. L.C. in 1999 the Court held that unjustified isolation of people with disabilities in institutions is discrimination.

The Justice Department and the EEOC enforce the law, along with private lawsuits. Questions now include how the law applies to websites and apps, and a 2024 rule set web accessibility standards for state and local governments. Businesses complain of a wave of lawsuits over minor violations, sometimes filed in bulk, while disability advocates say compliance remains uneven more than 30 years later.