People With Disabilities Recover Federal Rights Protections, USA

Main Category: Mental Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 26 Sep 2008 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law hails the signing today of the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) of 2008. The ADAAA ensures that the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act will once again be available to the many people with mental or phyical disabilities who need them.

"People with disabilities experience real discrimination and deserve real protections," said Jennifer Mathis, the Bazelon Center's deputy legal director, who played a key role in securing congressional passage of the ADAA. "Now those who have been denied protections will finally be able to claim them."

Enacted after lengthy negotiations, the ADAAA overturns several Supreme Court decisions that had made it difficult for people with disabilities to qualify for protection under the ADA. As a result of these decisions, federal courts have held that many people with conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, muscular dystrophy and other disabilities were not covered by the ADA.

"We are particularly gratified that the President has signed this law," said the Center's executive director, Robert Bernstein. "It will rescue people with psychiatric disabilities from the Catch 22 in which the Supreme Court has left them--that when medications reduce their symptoms, however temporarily, many no longer qualified for protection as 'people with disabilities' under the ADA."

The amended law explicitly rejects the narrow standards used by the court to determine who has a disability. Mathis served as a member of the negotiating team representing the disability and civil rights communities in a series of complex negotiations with business representatives. The compromise reached by the negotiators formed the basis for the legislation that was signed today.

The House of Representatives passed the ADAAA in June 2008 by a vote of 402-17. The Senate recently passed a slightly revised version by unanimous consent, and that measure was subsequently approved by the House. The law becomes effective on January 1, 2009.

For more information on what the ADAA does, see here.

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is the leading national legal-advocacy organization representing people with mental disabilities. It promotes laws and policies that can enable people with psychiatric or developmental disabilities to exercise their life choices and access the resources they need to participate fully in their communities.

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

• Additional
• References
• Citations