Access Alaska

What to Expect of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008

Anchorage - 1/5/09 - Two Sessions: 8:30 to 10:00 or 1:30 to 3:00

Effective January 1, 2009, this new law will expand coverage to at least 15 percent of Alaskans and promote greater access and reasonable accommodation in employment. A wider variety of people will qualify under the broader definition which will be further delineated in 2009. This briefing will outline decision making in advance of regulations, using pertinent guidance from the US Department of Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Participants may include ADA Coordinators, state and department leads, legal professionals, human resource professionals, and business owners.

Prior to the briefing, participants should review the Amendments Act overview, ADA “Building Blocks” basics web course and an overview of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. State employees  should also review Administrative Order 129.

Registration (no-cost and open to the public)

State Employee Online Registration: https://dop.state.ak.us/trainalaskav2/. Select ADA-R for the Amendments Act.

Members of  the Public may contact Kathy Rado at 465-2814, Toll-Free Voice/TTY at 1 (800)478-2815 or E-mail at kathy.rado@alaska.gov. When registering, please provide name, organization, address, and telephone number.

Location

BP Energy Center, 900 Benson Blvd, Classroom C: Click for link to map

Equal opportunity employer/program.

Auxiliary aids and services available upon request to individuals with disabilities.

Tags: AnchorageAlaska, ADA, training

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The bill is now headed to the White House where Congressional champions and advocates anticipate President Bush's signature next week.

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Tags: ADA, The ADA Amendments Act of 2008, ADA Restoration Act

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NOTE: This entry will update as the bills status changes.

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(WASHINGTON, DC) – Earlier today, by a vote of 27 to 0, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed HR 3195, the ADA Restoration Act, introduced by former Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis), and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD).  Additionally, the House Education and Labor Committee also marked-up the bill, where it passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 43 to 1.  The following statement was made by Congressman Sensenbrenner at the Judiciary Committee mark-up:

“One of our finest moments occurred eighteen years ago when President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law.  It was with that stroke of a pen that this country took a significant step forward in eliminating the barriers that for far too long kept disabled Americans from fully participating in the American dream.  Prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, disabled Americans faced not only physical barriers in almost all aspects of society but also attitudinal barriers, which relegated them to a form of second class citizenship. Moreover, because federal and state laws were ill-equipped to protect disabled Americans at the time, the false stereotypes and discriminatory treatment employed by others created a vicious cycle.

“Last summer, I joined with my friend, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, to introduce the ADA Restoration Act (ADARA).  The bipartisan legislation that we introduced quickly garnered nearly 250 cosponsors.  We introduced the ADARA to enable disabled Americans utilizing the ADA to focus on the discrimination that they have experienced rather than having to first prove that they fall within the scope of the ADA’s protection.  With this bill, the ADA’s “clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination on the basis of disability” would be properly restored and the ADA can rightfully reclaim its place among our Nation’s civil rights laws.“The ADARA was originally drafted as a response to a number of Supreme Court cases that chipped away at the broad protections of the ADA.  The impact of these Supreme Court decisions has been to exclude millions of disabled workers from the ADA’s protections and requirements for employers.  Let me say that again—millions of Americans who want to work and who were otherwise intended by Congress to be able to work free from discrimination, have had the door shut in their faces because of these decisions.“The courts have created a situation in which disabled Americans can now be discriminated against by their employers because of their impairments, but these citizens are not considered disabled enough by our federal courts to invoke the protections of the ADA.“This is unacceptable.  No other civil rights law, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requires a victim of discrimination to first prove that she or he is worthy of the law’s protections before proving a discrimination case.  Nor should the ADA require such proof.  The ADA is a civil rights law and should be interpreted as such.“The Substitute Amendment that I am joining Chairman Conyers in offering reflects a hard sought compromise between members of the disability community and members from the business community.  By its very nature, no one is completely satisfied with a compromise.  Both sides made concessions to the other during their arduous negotiations.“As in the original ADA that passed Congress in 1990, the substitute keeps the requirement that an impairment must “substantially limit a major life activity” in order to be considered a disability.  As written, the ADARA would have broadened the definition of disability.  The compromise defines “substantially limits” as “materially restricts” and contains explicit language rejecting the Supreme Court’s more restrictive interpretation.“The substitute also contains a non-exhaustive list of examples of major life activities.  It further notes that major life activities also include major bodily functions and contains a non-exhaustive list of examples of major bodily functions.“The substitute amendment contains language making it clear that the “regarded as” prong of the definition covers situations in which an employee is discriminated against because of his or her actual or perceived impairment, whether or not the impairment is perceived to substantially limit a major life activity.  “Regarded as” would not apply to transitory and minor impairments where an impairment is considered “transitory” if it has an expected duration of six months or less.  Accommodations need not be made to someone who is disabled solely because he or she is “regarded as” disabled.“The ADA has been one of the most effective civil rights laws passed by Congress.  Its continued effectiveness is paramount to ensuring that the transformation that our nation has undergone continues in the future and that the guarantees and promises on which this country was established continue to be recognized on behalf of all its citizens.“The substitute amendment before us today is the result of hard work and countless hours of good-faith negotiations between staff, disability advocates, and business groups.  I look forward to passage by this Committee today, and expect broad bipartisan support when this bill reaches the House floor.”

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Disability advocates and business leaders are close to reaching a proposed deal to recommend language to Congress that would resolve their conflicts over the ADA Restoration Act.

The proposed language, which could still change, would redefine "disability" to be any actual, past or perceived physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits a major life activity" and then defines this phrase to mean "materially restricts a major life activity," according to details released by the American Association of People with Disabilities.

The proposal also includes a non-exhaustive list of covered major life activities, and defines the operation of major bodily functions as a covered major life activity.

Find out if your major life activities or  major bodily functions are covered  here.

Tags: AmericanAssociation of People with Disabilities, ADA, ADA Resoration Act

NOTE: The article mistakenly refers to Andrew Imparato, AAPD's President and CEO as Michael Imparato.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $250,000 and make policy changes to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The agency accused Wal-Mart of failing to accommodate, then firing, a long-time pharmacy technician disabled by a gunshot wound.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, the commission said Glenda D. Allen had worked as a Wal-Mart pharmacy technician since July 1993 and was shot during a robbery at a different employer in 1994. She suffered permanent damage to her spinal cord and other problems and had to use a cane to walk. Despite what the EEOC said was a successful job performance, Wal-Mart declared Ms. Allen incapable of performing her job with or without a reasonable accommodation, denied her a reasonable accommodation, then fired her, the EEOC said.

The company will provide Americans with Disabilities Act training to salaried supervisors and managers of its Abingdon, Md., stores and pharmacies and list all employees there who have complained of such problems.

This is the EEOC's second settlement this year with Wal-Mart about the ADA. In April, it settled a lawsuit about the company's failure to hire a person with cerebral palsy for $300,000 and agreed to make policy changes.

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More here.

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In a move that could have far-reaching implications for businesses, Congress is considering the most sweeping changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) since the employment law went into effect in 1990.

A recently introduced bill would radically expand the number of persons and conditions covered by ADA by changing the definition of “disabled” to include temporary or correctable conditions such as poor eyesight. The bill—the ADA Restoration Act of 2007—would also do away with the current ADA requirement that an impairment must “substantially limit one or more major life activities” to be considered a disability. Virtually the entire U.S. working population could be covered by the law under the proposed changes.

“The Chamber will actively oppose these radical changes because they would not address the needs of those who are deserving of ADA’s protections but, instead, divert significant compliance and enforcement resources to ‘gotcha’ lawsuits that already overwhelm enforcement agencies and the courts,” says U.S. Chamber Executive Vice President of Government Affairs Bruce Josten.

In 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that of the 15,575 charges filed under ADA, there was reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred in only 5.6% of the cases.

Any changes to the definition would also affect other portions of ADA law, including Title III public access provisions. Title III calls on virtually every business serving the public—regardless of size or number of employees—to make their facilities accessible to people with disabilities.

In addition, the Department of Justice is already planning to implement revised accessibility guidelines. “Expanding the class of people who can assert a claim for accessibility will subject businesses and other facility operators to greater confusion and litigation,” Josten says.

Go to the Chamber website to comment on this article.

To contact the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

U.S. Chamber of Commerce
1615 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20062-2000
Main Number: 202-659-6000

To contact the Alaska Chapter visit their website.

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DISCRIMINATION WATCH

"No dog, no dog," shouted the driver and another worker when District resident Joe Orozco and his guide dog tried to board a Todays Bus from Washington to New York. Orozco protested that the company is required by law to accommodate service animals, but the workers continued to block his entry and laughed, he says, when he threatened to call police. Once he called police, the workers said he could ride if the dog was put in the bottom of the bus with the luggage. They relented after police came.

When Orozco tried to board the return bus the next day, a Todays Bus employee in New York yanked his ticket away and tried to return his money, he says.

The bus pulled away. After Orozco called police, workers said he could take the next bus but ordered him to sit in the back. He complied, but he is filing a complaint with the Justice Department, which enforces the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Todays Bus did not respond to four telephone messages left for the manager and owner.

The ADA guarantees interstate service to disabled passengers; that includes providing access, with advance notice, to people in wheelchairs. But many of the companies that pick up passengers curbside -- the so-called "Chinatown buses" -- simply ignore the law. In 2004, regulators checked 14 companies that operate between Washington and New York, and cited 11 of them for violating the ADA. The Justice Department launched an investigation in October 2004. "We continue to work on it," spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said last week.

Gathering evidence seems quick and easy to CoGo, who recently called Todays to ask about wheelchair access. The man who answered refused to give his name, but his answer was clear: "No wheelchair."

To register a complaint, call the Justice Department, 800-514- 0301.

Source: The Washington Post

Outraged? Email or call Todays Bus

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