The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has voted to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would revise its Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations to comply with the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), which was passed late last year and went into effect January 1, 2009. The ADAAA and the proposed rule make it easier for employees and applicants who allege disability discrimination to establish that they are disabled and therefore entitled to the ADA’s protections.
In a huge departure from the approach taken in the old regulations, the NPRM lists specific types of physical and mental impairments that will “consistently” qualify as disabilities under the ADA, such as deafness, blindness, missing limbs, cancer, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, and severe mental disorders such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. In addition, the EEOC emphasizes that:
- the definition of disability must be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals and shouldn’t require extensive analysis;
- major life activities include major bodily functions;
- mitigating measures, such as medications and devices that people use to reduce or eliminate the effects of an impairment, aren’t to be considered when determining whether someone has a disability; and
- impairments that are episodic or in remission, such as epilepsy, cancer, and many kinds of psychiatric impairments, are disabilities if they would substantially limit a major life activity when active.
The regulation also provides a more straightforward way of demonstrating that an individual is substantially limited in the major life activity of working.
Proposed changes expected out next week
The NPRM is expected to be published in the Federal Register next week, at which point the public will be given 60 days to comment. In the meantime, the EEOC has posted a question and answer guide about the NPRM on its website at www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_adaaa_nprm.html.
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Learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADAAA, resaonsonable accommodations for disabled workers and much more in the Americans with Disablities (ADA) Compliance Manual