Question

One of the most controversial diversity laws is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). What is it about this law that seems to be so troublesome, and why do so many employers complain so loudly about the law?

Answer 1

What is Americans with Disability Act of 1990 (ADA)

Its a civil law applicable in United States of America for the discrimination against people with disabilities. The Act has similar stature as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but adds certain more points to it.ADA requires employers of Americans with disabilities to provide them reasonable accommodation and imposes requirements of accessibilities of public accommodations.

Titles under ADA

Titles		Meaning
Title I	Employement	Providing Equal opportunities to Americans with disability
Title II	State and local government	Promoting no discrimination against Americans with disability in local and local government
Title III	Public Accomodations	No discrimination against Americans with disabilities in commercial facilities and public accommodations
Title IV	Telecommunication	Providing telecommunication services such as telephone and internet services to mericans with speech and hearing disabilities
Title V	Miscellaneous Provisions	It provides and relates the ADA to other rights

Criticism of the ADA

• Criticism from religious groups-The Act received criticism in its initial days from religious groups such as churches because the act has defined churches under “public accommodations”. This required them to incur huge costs to make the churches more accessible to Americans with disabilities.

• Criticism by Small Businesses- ADA faced an enormous criticism from small businesses due to the logic of enormous costs involved in the employing of Americans with disability. The employers also feared the legal bindings related to ADA would hamper the employability of such people. They term the legal procedures as “legal extorter”.

  For example-Recently, there were more than 100 law suits against small businesses in Minnesota with small population of 14000 by a single group.One interesting fact is that, out of 100, only 1 case went to trail and others settled out of court for huge cash.

• < > ADA has received huge criticism on grounds that it has resulted in decrease in the rate of employment of Americans with disabilities. The argument is that the ADA bothers employers with legalities and added costs for employing people from the category.

  Future Issue for ADA- There is a baby boom demographic condition wherein there are 75 million people over the age of 65 today, out of which by the year 2030 half of them would contribute to the present 43 million Americans with disability, would total to a grand 80 million population in the category. This would pose another serious challenge for infrastructure, healthcare as well as community centres facilities.