This post was last updated in July 2024.
On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA became law.
The ADA made it illegal to discriminate against an individual living with a disability.
ADA compliance touches many areas of our lives, from employment to education to transportation to technology.
In this post, you’ll learn about the history of the ADA, a summary of the guidelines contained within the ADA, and how the ADA changed everyday life for individuals with disabilities.
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?
As ada.gov explains, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA is a federal civil rights law.
The ADA prevents discrimination based on someone’s disability.
The ADA is intended to help guarantee that individuals living with disabilities have equal opportunities in employment, consumer purchasing, and government program participation.
The ADA is a law, not a “benefit program.”
That means an individual with disabilities does not need to apply or get accepted into a program to be covered by this legislation.
When was the Americans with Disabilities Act passed?
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed on July 26, 1990.
What is the purpose of the ADA?
The purpose of the ADA is to prevent discrimination against individuals living with disabilities and ensure equal access.
Companies and organizations including employers, governments, public businesses, commercial locations, transportation providers, and telecommunication businesses must all follow ADA requirements.
What is considered a disability under the ADA?
The ADA broadly defines a disability as a non-temporary physical or mental diagnosis that significantly limits your life activities or physical functions.
There is no Americans with Disabilities Act list of disabilities that includes every disability covered under the ADA.
The ADA covers a wide range of both visible and invisible disabilities.
A few examples of physical disability diagnoses covered by the ADA are cancer, diabetes, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, limb loss, paralysis and mobility disabilities, epilepsy, blindness, hearing loss, and traumatic brain injuries.
A few examples of mental disability diagnoses covered by the ADA are PTSD, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and autism.
As of 2024, diagnoses that are not considered a disability include a broken bone or similar impairment that can completely heal, a cold or flu, an addiction, mobility limitations due exclusively to age, and temporary physical disabilities due to a pregnancy.
What is covered under the ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act includes five sections, called “titles.”
Each title applies to a particular type of organization, company, or business—we summarize these titles below.
Summary of ADA Title I: Employment
Who is impacted? Employers with 15+ employees.
Who is included? Governments, employment agencies, and labor unions.
What does ADA Title I say?
-Employers must provide an equal opportunity for employees with disabilities to benefit from opportunities.
-Includes recruitment and hiring, training, getting promoted, pay, and socialization.
Learn more about equal opportunity hiring under the ADA here.
Individuals with disabilities can file a complaint if they believe they have been impacted by an ADA violation.
Summary of ADA Title II A: Government
Who is impacted? State and local governments, regardless of their size and whether they are federally funded.
What is included? Public education, transportation, health care, recreation, courts, social services, voting, emergency and town meetings.
What does ADA Title II A say?
-Governments must give individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from the activities, services, and programs they provide.
Find more info about government requirements under the ADA here.
Individuals with disabilities can file a complaint if they believe a state or local government is violating their rights under the ADA.
Summary of ADA Title II B: Public Transportation
Who is impacted? Public transit and transportation.
Who is included? Private transportation systems also fall under the ADA, but not in this section—see Title III below.
What does ADA Title II B say?
-Public transit systems have to give individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from transportation services.
Individuals with disabilities can file a complaint if they believe a public transit system is not complying with the ADA.
Summary of ADA Title III: Public Businesses
Who is impacted? Any business or nonprofit that is open to the public.
Who is included? Retail stores, hotels, private schools, movie theaters, doctor offices, hospitals, daycares, gyms, and private transportation services such as taxis, charter buses, and shuttles.
Who is not included? A commercial facility such as an office building, factory, or warehouse does not fall under Title III. Instead, these facilities must follow the standards for accessible design—more on that below.
What does ADA Title III say?
-Businesses and nonprofits with public access must ensure individuals with disabilities have equal access to their goods and services.
Americans with Disabilities Act Standards Under Title III
The guidelines upheld by ADA Title III are detailed on this page. A brief summary is below.
ADA Title III guidelines include making “reasonable modifications” to the way these entities do business to accommodate the rights of people with disabilities.
This can include providing extra support to individuals with disabilities to ensure access to products or services, modifying policies, allowing service animals into the premises, and finding practical ways to communicate with customers and clients.
However, this policy leaves room for business not to provide assistance if doing so “will jeopardize the safe operation of the business.”
ADA Title III also requires businesses to maintain accessibility in their physical location—however, businesses must be able to do so “without excessive expense.”
Examples of Physical Barriers Under the ADA
A few examples of physical barriers that are considered high priority under the ADA:
-Access to the entrance of the business
-Access to parking and public transportation
-Access to the services or goods offered by the business
-Access to public restrooms and public amenities such as water fountains
Architectural barriers to accessibility must only be removed if doing so “is readily achievable” without a lot of difficulty or cost.
If it isn’t possible without a financial strain, a business can still accommodate ADA requirements by providing an alternate way for clients or customers with disabilities to access its facilities or services—such as a restaurant offering a curbside takeout option if its front entrance has multiple stairs.
Does ADA Title III apply to all businesses & barriers?
ADA Title II barrier removal requirements work on a sliding scale.
A larger and more financially capable business is expected to do more to ensure accessibility than a small business.
A small business that gains more financial stability is then expected to continue to address barriers to accessibility within their new means.
As spinal cord injury client Ambassador Jeff Harris, a Senior Project Manager for a landscape architecture and planning firm, explained:
“We talk about something called the one-step effect. Although the ADA is great, there are many times when a restaurant or store cannot modify the step that leads into their establishment due to design costs or sidewalk width limitations.
These issues are often considered ‘undue hardship’ on a business, so they are not required by law to make the modifications.”
Summary of ADA Title IV: Telecommunications
Who is impacted? Companies that provide telecommunications.
What does Title IV say?
-Telecommunications companies must provide individuals with hearing or speech disabilities a way to communicate.
Individuals with disabilities can file a complaint against a telecommunications company that violates this policy.
Does the ADA apply to web accessibility?
At Help Hope Live, we maintain our ADA compliance with accessiBe.
Yes: Americans with Disabilities Act standards do apply to web accessibility.
In 2017 and 2018, legislators agreed that a website is considered a public “location” that must provide equal access to services and activities to individuals with disabilities.
In 2022, the Department of Justice issued a web accessibility ADA guide.
As of 2024, these guidelines have been amended with additional requirements for governments.
What makes a website ADA compliant?
ADA compliance regulations prevent website owners from creating barriers to equal access for users with disabilities.
There are many difference ADA compliance requirements for digital accessibility, but here are a few examples from ada.gov:
-Sufficient color contrast between text and the background of the text
-Information conveyed through cues that are not only color cues
–Alternative text or “alt text” to help users understand the purpose and content of images, graphics, graphs, and charts
–Captions on videos
-Online forms that are compatible with screen readers
–Keyboard navigation capabilities
Keep in mind that as of 2024, there is no legal standard for ADA compliance for website accessibility.
However, the Department of Justice typically defers to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG to ensure accessibility compliance. See a summary here from accessiBe.
How did the ADA change the lives of individuals with disabilities?
Two of our clients gave their insights on how ADA Title I impacted their employment experiences:
“The ADA changed my life,” explains Linda Jara, a Help Hope Live client Ambassador and heart transplant recipient. “It provided employment protections when I had doctors’ appointments with my LVAD, and it protected my return to work post-transplant: my employer held my job for me and provided me with accommodations.”
Help Hope Live client Ambassador and transplant recipient John Wilson gave another employment example:
“I was given a poor review at work because I was having difficulty reading text, even after I received accommodations to work with larger monitors. I was worried that I was going to lose my disability claim because I would get fired before I got the chance to take disability leave.
I had to get HR involved, and that’s when I found out that my manager could not give me a review without the HR department going over it to ensure none of the associated issues were due to disability. They were.
The next review, I got a good performance rating. A month after that, I went on disability leave.
Knowing that the ADA existed kept me from getting fired just because a manager didn’t know that my employment was protected.”
In 2020, when the Americans with Disabilities Act became 30 years old, ADA author Robert L Burgdorf, Jr. and global disability representation speaker Wendy Lu explained how different life looked before the ADA:
Before the ADA, kids with disabilities were not receiving an adequate education.
Wendy Lu explained that public schools could exclude kids with disabilities and refuse to provide accommodations to help these kids receive a fair education.
Due to these barriers, many kids who could not fit into the traditional school system without accommodations were sent to live in institutions.
The ADA also provides a pathway for families to secure an Individualized Education Program or IEP. As Help Hope Live’s Cathy Letcher explained:
“As the parent of a child living on the autism spectrum, I am extremely grateful for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Title II protection has allowed our family to work closely with school officials to secure an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
We take tremendous comfort in knowing that all reasonable and needed services, aids, modifications, and accommodations will continue to support the academic, emotional, and social growth of our child—and all other children granted protection under the ADA.”
Before the ADA, individuals with disabilities could be prohibited from appearing in public.
From the 1800s until as late as 1974, individuals with disabilities could be declared unfit to leave their homes under “Ugly Laws.”
Under the guise of public welfare—but primarily serving the wealthy—these laws prohibited individuals with disabilities who were “unsightly” to the general public from accessing public spaces.
Before the ADA, employers could fire or refuse to hire an individual with a disability.
Wendy Lu and Robert L Burgdorf, Jr. explained that prior to this legislation, employers could force applicants to participate in invasive questionnaires about their health or a pre-employment physical—and then use what they found to fire or refuse to hire someone.
Before the ADA, public locations and parks were often not accessible.
ADA author Robert L Burgdorf, Jr. explained that parks, government facilities, and public monuments were often designed without any thought to whether individuals with disabilities would be able to access them.
The ADA increased accessible entrances, ramps, curb cuts, and disability parking spaces.
Before the ADA, individuals with disabilities could be denied the right to vote or hold office.
Robert L Burgdorf, Jr. outlined that today, some rights are easy to take for granted in America, including the right to vote, the right to obtain a driver’s license, the right to enter a court, or the right to serve in public office.
Prior to the ADA, some of these possibilities and rights were denied to individuals with disabilities due to lack of accessibility in physical locations or lack of accessible communication.
Before the ADA, individuals could be unnecessarily segregated in nursing homes or institutions.
Because businesses were not required to accommodate health and housing needs, individuals with disabilities could end up living in an institution or a nursing home in a segregated and limited environment just to access a basic standard of living and appropriate health care support.
Did the ADA end disability discrimination?
The short answer to this question is no: the ADA did not end discrimination against individuals with disabilities.
The Americans with Disabilities Act was considered a milestone legislation and a long overdue effort to protect individuals living with disabilities from discrimination and harm.
However, as Wendy Lu explained, individuals with disabilities are still disproportionately likely to be poor, unemployed, abused, and discriminated against—especially if they are a person of color, over 65, or living in a facility.
Financial discrimination and the ADA
At Help Hope Live, we also recognize the immense and discriminatory impact of financial barriers against individuals with disabilities—barriers that persist more than 30 years after the ADA was passed.
If you are living with a disability and rely on asset-based assistance such as Medicaid or SSDI, you may have an asset cap that prevents you from saving or earning over a certain amount of money.
This financial discrimination can have life-changing implications.
They may prevent an individual with disabilities from getting married or even lead to a divorce from a loving spouse out of fear of losing benefits and taking on life-threatening health risks as a result.
They can thwart attempts at meaningful employment by putting certain job titles and careers out of reach without jeopardizing critical health benefits and financial support.
Individuals with disabilities can end up caught in the middle, unable to pursue greater financial stability for fear of losing their benefits, but also unable to secure what they need to heal, live, and thrive without additional financial stability.
This impossible predicament is one reason why our nonprofit exists: to allow individuals with disabilities to fundraise for medical and related expenses while limiting their risk of jeopardizing their access to benefits and asset-based assistance.
Our nonprofit shouldn’t exist.
But until the promised hope of the ADA lives up to the reality of day-to-day life for individuals with disability, we have to.
Get Financial Help for Disability-Related Expenses
If you or someone you care about is facing financial barriers due to a disability, our nonprofit may be able to help. Apply to start a trusted medical fundraising campaign that provides maximum protection for asset-based benefits:
If fundraising is not the right fit right now, we offer comprehensive and hand-vetted Resource Directories that can point you in the right direction for additional help:
