Americans with disabilities act - Coursework Example

Americans with Disabilities Act of Affiliation: Americans with Disabilities Act Americans with Disability Act is a civil-rights law, which prohibits any discrimination on an individual because of disability, passed by the senate in 1990 as a bill authored by Tom Halkin. The Americans with Disability act accesses similar protection as the Civil Rights Act enacted earlier offering protection to Americans against discrimination based on gender, religion, sex, or even race. However, in contrast to the Civil Rights Act, Americans with Disability Act requires that employers provide adequate accommodation to their employees with disability in addition to providing sufficient accessibility on the requirements on public housing facilities (Schall, 1998).

The act identifies disabilities as the commonly known disabilities in addition to certain medical conditions. The disabilities include deafness, blindness, and an intellectual disability, previously known as mental retardation among others. The medical conditions include autism, cancer, and cerebral palsy among others with an emphasis on the fact that the conditions must not be severe or permanent for one to get inclusion in the act (Schall, 1998).Americans with Disability act has played a substantive role in the employment perspective where it states that no organization shall discriminate against a qualified person with a disability.

Despite such an aspect, different many controversies have risen between many organizations and people with disability regarding the aspects of the Americans with Disability Act. Such elements include the firing or refusal to hire an individual based on a real or perceived disabilities, segregation, as well as harassment based on any disability (Schall, 1998), with some instances resulting into court cases. One of such cases is the one involving Crews v. Dow Chemical Co., from which Americans with Disability Act have had a significant impact in the workplace.

In the case, a human resources employee sued the employer after the employer’s restriction from various tasks pending fitness-for-duty evaluation, which contributed to the cancellation of her promotion, and later termination. The plaintiff alleged that the considering the employers noticeable hand tremors (Schall, 1998).From the revelation of the plaintiff, she had earlier received bipolar treatments and depression requiring a full-time paid medical leave, which the employer offered. On the expiry, of the full-time paid medical leave, the employee later applied for Social Security benefits, and long-term disability, issues considered from a physicians assessment that an employee was indefinitely incapable of returning to work (Schall, 1998).

The employer then terminated the plaintiff from the organization after the plaintiff started receiving her long-term disability benefits. Ideally, it is substantively unreasonable for the plaintiff to make a claim that she is not able to work just for the sake of receiving long-term social security benefits. Based on such a perspective, it is significantly clear that the plaintiff’s present conditions do not qualify her as an individual with a disability under the current definitions of the Americans with Disability Act, as per the requirements of determining issues of discrimination.

Based on the above perspective, it is evident that Americans with Disability Act, plays a substantive role in the workplace by identifying the roles that every employee and employer has to play within an organization. ADA sets the appropriate boundaries about employment protection.ReferenceSchall, Carol M. (Jun 1998). The Americans with Disabilities Act—Are We Keeping Our Promise? An Analysis of the Effect of the ADA on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, v10 n3 pp.

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