What is the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act?
The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) is a new law that was signed by President Bush on September 25, 2008. It amends the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and restores the original intent of Congress when it drafted the law in 1990 with regard to who is protected from discrimination on the basis of disability. Why was a new law needed? When the ADA was enacted it promised to be a vital means of protecting the interests of people who are treated unfairly because of their epilepsy. But a series of Supreme Court decisions severely narrowed who was covered by the law and many individuals with epilepsy and other chronic illnesses found themselves no longer protected by the law. Thus, while some people with epilepsy were able to prove that their condition was a disability under the original ADA, many others – especially workers – had trouble proving to courts that their epilepsy met the Court’s narrow definition of “disability,” usually because they were able to man
