On September 16, 2009, the Commission voted to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to conform its ADA regulations to the Amendments Act of 2008. The NPRM
was published in the Federal Register on September 23, 2009. The
Commission has also issued a question and answer guide on the NPRM (
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_adaaa_nprm.html).
Below is a summary of the changes made by the Amendments Act, which
became effective on January 1, 2009.
On September 25, 2008, the President signed the Americans with
Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 ("ADA Amendments Act" or
"Act"). The Act emphasizes that the definition of disability should be
construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals to the maximum
extent permitted by the terms of the ADA and generally shall not
require extensive analysis.
The Act makes important changes to the definition of the term
"disability" by rejecting the holdings in several Supreme Court
decisions and portions of EEOC's ADA regulations. The effect of these
changes is to make it easier for an individual seeking protection under
the ADA to establish that he or she has a disability within the meaning
of the ADA.
The Act retains the ADA's basic definition of "disability" as an
impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an
impairment. However, it changes the way that these statutory terms
should be interpreted in several ways. Most significantly, the Act:
- directs EEOC to revise that portion of its regulations defining the term "substantially limits";
- expands the definition of "major life activities" by including two non-exhaustive lists:
- the first list includes many activities that the EEOC has
recognized (e.g., walking) as well as activities that EEOC has not
specifically recognized (e.g., reading, bending, and communicating);
- the second list includes major bodily functions (e.g., "functions
of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder,
neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and
reproductive functions");
- states that mitigating measures other than "ordinary eyeglasses or
contact lenses" shall not be considered in assessing whether an
individual has a disability;
- clarifies that an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a
disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when
active;
- changes the definition of "regarded as" so that it no longer
requires a showing that the employer perceived the individual to be
substantially limited in a major life activity, and instead says that
an applicant or employee is "regarded as" disabled if he or she is
subject to an action prohibited by the ADA (e.g., failure to hire or
termination) based on an impairment that is not transitory and minor;
- provides that individuals covered only under the "regarded as" prong are not entitled to reasonable accommodation.
EEOC will be evaluating the impact of these changes on its enforcement guidances and other publications addressing the ADA.
Effective Date:
The ADA Amendments Act is effective as of January 1, 2009.