The document discusses several key federal laws related to accessibility for people with disabilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA is a major civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It covers areas like employment (Title I), public services (Title II), and public accommodations (Title III). The ADA and other laws have impacted engineering disciplines and require reasonable accommodations and accessible design of buildings, information, and technologies. However, accessible design principles are not fully incorporated into most engineering education programs.

1. College of Engineering, Wayne State University
LAWS
&
ACCESSIBILITY
Part 1. Overview
and
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Support for this work cam from NSF grant DUE 0088807 for the development of accessible design curriculum material. (Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.)
© Robert Erlandson, 2003

2. Federal Laws dealing with accessibility have spawned a
collection of guidelines covering products and services
that impact most industries and businesses while
touching the lives of all people, in one way or another.
Yet accessible and universal design concepts and
principles are not finding their way into engineering
educational programs. This represents
a serious knowledge gap – one that
needs to be addressed.

3. Laws:
Accessible
Design

4. Laws
The three laws which deal most directly with the accessibility of
products and services are:
•Americans with Disabilities Act a major civil rights law
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability in the private
and public sectors.
•Telecommunications Act (Section 255) requires access to new
telecommunications and customer premises equipment where
"readily achievable."
•Rehabilitation Act Amendments amends section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act to ensure access to electronic and information
technology in the Federal sector.
http://www.access-board.gov/indexes/aboutindex.htm

5. Federal Laws and the Engineering Disciplines Impacted
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Business
X
Architecture
Engineering
Technology
X
Computer
Science
X
Biomedical
Engineering
X
Chemical
Engineering
Americans with
Disabilities Act
Telecommunicati
ons Act – Section
255
Rehabilitation
Act Amendments
-Section 508
Industrial
Engineering
Laws
Electrical &
Computer
Engineering
Mechanical
Engineering
Civil
Engineering
Discipline
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

6. The Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) of 1990
“The ADA recognizes and protects the civil rights of
people with disabilities … prohibiting discrimination
on the basis of race and gender.
The ADA covers a wide range of disability, from
physical conditions affecting mobility, stamina, sight,
hearing, and speech to conditions such as emotional
illness and learning disorders.”
http://www.access-board.gov/about/ADA.htm

7. The ADA addresses:
•Title I - access to the workplace
•Title II - State and local government services
•Title III - places of public accommodation and
commercial facilities
•Title IV - requires phone companies to provide
telecommunications relay services for people who
have hearing or speech impairments (title IV)
http://www.access-board.gov/about/ADA.htm

8. ADA Jobs & Workplace
The ADA (Title I) deals with:
•jobs
•essential functions of jobs
•reasonable accommodations
•use of assistive technology
•accessible design
•universal design

9. Americans with Disabilities Act: Jobs &
Workplace
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
prohibits
private employers, state and local governments, employment
agencies and labor unions
From discriminating against
qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures,
hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other
terms, conditions and privileges of employment.
http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html

10. An individual with a disability
is a person who:
Has a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life
activities
Has a record of such an impairment
Is regarded as having such an impairment

11. A qualified employee or applicant
with a disability
is an individual who,
with or without
reasonable accommodation,
can perform the essential functions of the job
in question.

12. What is a Disability? cont’d.
Impairment that substantially limits one major
life activity need not limit other major life
activities to be considered a disability.
Definition of a “major life activity” includes:
12
– caring for oneself
– performing manual
tasks
– seeing
– hearing
– eating
– sleeping
– walking
– standing
– lifting
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
bending
speaking
breathing
learning
reading
concentrating
thinking
communicating
working

14. What is a Disability? cont’d.
Major bodily functions:
–
–
–
–
–
14
immune system
digestive
bowel
bladder
neurological (dyslexia – brain and learning
disabilities)
– respiratory
– circulatory

15. Reasonable accommodation
may include, but is not limited to:
•Making existing facilities used by employees readily
accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities
•Job restructuring, modifying work schedules,
reassignment to a vacant position
•Acquiring or modifying equipment or devices,
adjusting modifying examinations, training materials,
or policies, and providing qualified readers or
interpreters

17. Disabilities & Substance Abuse
Alcohol
An alcoholic is protected by the ADA as
having a disability.
• [A] person who currently uses alcohol is not
automatically denied protection simply because
of the alcohol use. An alcoholic is a person with
a disability under the ADA and may be entitled
to consideration of accommodation, if s/he is
qualified to perform the essential functions of a
job. However, a[n] employer may discipline,
discharge or deny employment to an alcoholic
whose use of alcohol adversely affects job
performance or conduct to the extent that s/he is
not “qualified.”
17

18. Drugs
A drug addict is protected as having a
disability only if he or she is receiving
recovery treatment and is not a current user.
Persons addicted to drugs, but who are no longer
using drugs illegally and are receiving treatment for
drug addiction or who have been rehabilitated
successfully, are protected by the ADA from
discrimination on the basis of past drug addiction.

19. An employer is required
to make an accommodation
to the known disability of a qualified applicant or
employee
if
it would not impose an "undue hardship" on the
operation of the employer's business.

20. Undue hardship
is defined as
an action requiring significant difficulty or expense
when considered in light of factors such as an
employer's size, financial resources and the nature
and structure of its operation.

21. An employer is not required
·to lower quality or production standards to make
an accommodation
·nor is an employer obligated to provide personal
use items such as glasses or hearing aids

22. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
of 1990
Titles II & III
The building guidelines cover places of public
accommodation, commercial facilities, and State and
local government facilities.
http://www.access-board.gov/about/ADA.htm

23. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA mandates that information sources be
accessible.
In the past, this need was met with Braille texts,
large print, captioning, and other types of aides.
With the introduction of the World Wide Web and other
telecommunications-related information sources,
however, many businesses and communities
are falling short of meeting their ADA obligations for the
accessibility of information sources including
web-based resources.