Essay on Americans with Disabilities Act: Restricting Prejudice & Improving Accessibility

The "Americans with Disabilities Act" is a civil rights law that aims at restricting prejudice propelled against individuals with disabilities in the various facets of the society, such as transportation, when seeking jobs, engaging in telecommunications, public accommodations, and participating in federal activities. Disability status entails having difficulties with vision, walking or climbing stairs, cognition, hearing, self-care, and independent living. Although, the most common types include experiencing challenges in living independently or walking. The main intent of this legislation is to ensure that individuals with disabilities are entitled to similar privileges and opportunities as everyone else in the country. Thus, it focuses on granting civil rights safeguards to these people based on aspects such as religion, gender, age, nationality, and ethnicity. The intense discrimination projected towards people living with disabilities resulted in the formulation and execution of this legislation.

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Many people perceive those who have disabilities as inadequate in the community, and some regard them as a burden to their family. Thus, they encounter limitations on accessing education, healthcare, employment, among others. The Act has the objective of offering a precise and comprehensive obligation for everyone in the country to shun from discriminating individuals living with disabilities. Also, it has to take into account the issues that hinder the participation of Americans with disabilities from the normal operations of the community and establish mechanisms of removing such barriers. The underlying pillar of this legislation is ensuring equal opportunities to all without bias due to the physical impairment of an individual. For this reason, providers of services meant for usage by all have to ensure that they provide facilities that will enhance the wellbeing of people with disabilities. Besides, such facilities not only accommodate those who have disabilities but also other members of society. For instance, individuals on wheelchairs use curb cuts when accessing buildings, and they are used by those carrying babies on carriers too. Those found violating the Act are subject to prosecution in the court of law.

The ADA has effectively transformed the perceptions of people and treatment they accord their counterparts living with disabilities. The Act of inclusivity has attained great reinforcement at the learning institutions and organizations as people comprehend that disability is not inability, and the impaired individuals have a sound mental capacity. Besides, various groups of activists have aided in enhancing the awareness of the extension of equality to Americans with disabilities. Human beings should understand that disability is a natural phenomenon, just like race or gender, in that no one chooses to be born impaired. Thus, the condition should not limit a person from engaging in normal life and mainstream activities. Besides, accessibility to quality and healthcare and health services is essential in enhancing the health of individuals with disabilities and ensuring that they adhere to healthy behaviors.

Granting people with disabilities an opportunity to access educational training and employment has effectively promoted their financial security and reduced their dependence on family and well-wishers. Most of them have risen from poverty and can afford their daily needs because they earn an income and thus can support their families. Treating an individual unfairly because they have a disability or for being related to a person who has a disability or has a history of the disability is what entails discrimination. For this reason, this paper will provide in-depth research on the American with Disabilities Act by analysis of its current status and rulings. Thus, it will outline the purpose and key contents of this Act, determine the effectiveness of amendments done to it, and evaluate the impact of the judicial system in attaining the objective of the Act.

Statement of the Problem

However, the "Americans with Disabilities Act" faces challenges that have impeded the attainment of its mission due to the adverse court rulings. For instance, the cases regarding equal employment opportunity usually get ruled in favor of the defendants, the organizations, but not the person with a disability. Also, the Act is subject to unclear government policies that make working for people with disabilities quite a challenge. A good example is the Social Security rules that allow an individual with a disability to register in Medicare, but they are eligible to earn a few hundred dollars monthly. Those who earn more than the stated limit are at risk of missing out on all the benefits. Some local and national legislations have manifested bias as they advocate that people with disabilities should seek institutional care providers or nursing homes rather than having personal attendance services at home. The formulation of this policy happened during the period of creating Medicare and Medicaid. Staying at home is significant in that it allows them to engage in community activities where some even get employed. All these problems were experienced before the signing of the "Americans with Disabilities Act" into law. Besides, the challenge of accessibility of voting booths has resulted in most of the people with disabilities locked out of exercising their democratic right to elect their desired leaders. The rate of adoption of technology is low amongst the people living with disabilities as they lack access to the institutions of enhancing their knowledge and the necessary resources to actualize their ideas due to discrimination.

Research Design and Methodology

The main objective of this research is to assess the "Americans with Disabilities Act" by highlighting its current status and rulings. The project will use prior literature on the topic to provide a detailed and comprehensive case study. Using a literature-based research design is essential in facilitating timely completion of the project, and it ensures that the research has its basis on a wide range of rich data. The use of modern technology facilitated the quick access of the secondary sources of information. The significance of using the case study is that it will provide an in-depth understanding of the topic of study. Also, it will facilitate the comparison of the status of the American with Disabilities Act before and after the amendments to assess its current status. The research questions to be answered by this project include:

• What is the core intent of the "Americans with Disabilities Act"?
• How were the amendments done to the ADA in 2008 effective in making it attain its purpose?
• How has the American Judicial System impacted the implementation of ADA?

The use of previously researched materials will offer a theoretical background that is vital in comprehending the current status and rulings on Americans with disabilities. The literature will examine if the ADA has effectively achieved its objective of enhancing equality and lessening discrimination on people with disabilities. The methods employed in gathering information are analysis, searching, and conceptual analysis. Determining the research materials comprised of looking for classic review papers and cited references of important empirical documents that highlight the current status and rulings on "Americans with Disabilities Act." Effective searching required the use of keywords that relate to Americans with Disability Act, such as "inclusivity," "accommodation," "disability," and "discrimination." Some of the databases that aided in the search were Medline, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Sampling the research materials that focus on the ADA requires that the researcher employs both thematic and systematic review. Assessing the literature is essential to avoid irrelevant sources and duplication and to ensure extensive coverage of the topic of study. Thus, analyzing the abstract was fundamental in sorting the materials out and classifying them on how they respond to the research questions. In doing so, the researcher focused on the core intent of the research. Also, the use of the recent literature enhanced the validity of the study as it aims at determining the current status of the Act.

Literature Review

As postulated by Porter (2019), the continuous efforts by the Supreme Court to reduce the protected class of ADA prompted the amendments of the Act in 2008. The courts used to rule the employment cases in favor of the defendants, which are mainly the businesses. It implies that these courts interpreted the rights of individuals with disabilities very narrowly, in contrast to what the ADA dictates. The amendments ensured that the supreme court would have zero obligation in deciding on cases that regard the Americans with disabilities. For instance, in the case of Huber v. Wal-Mart Stores, certiorari granted by the supreme court assessed if it was to reassign a vacant equivalent position to an individual with a disability that rendered him or her unable to perform their initially given task. However, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals predisposed that Wal-Mart had no obligation to provide automatic reassigning of the disabled employee to a vacant position within the organization. The firm had the right to fire the worker and hire another one who has the relevant qualifications for the position since the court dismissed the petition. The company had put the plaintiff in a very low position after requesting a transfer from their previous job due to her disability.

The "Americans with Disabilities Act" Amendments encompasses the new guidelines regarding the definition of the term disability to lessen the narrow interpretation of ADA by the courts. Also, the main intent of these changes was to reduce the rate of discrimination on Americans with disabilities in all the realms of society. The term disability was to contain comprehensive coverage as defined by the terms in the Act, and construing the phrase "substantially limits" will have its basis on the purposes and findings of the ADA Amendments Act (Porter, 2019). Thus, the Act focuses on attaining optimum elimination of prejudice on impaired persons.

According to Henly and Brucker (2019), disability affects the traveling of most people as it limits the number of trips they can make in a day. Having a disability has a limitation on the number of times an individual goes to work, runs an errand, engages in recreational activities, or goes for shopping. Such minimal movements result from the fact that the construction of the transportation medium and working or recreational institutions does not accommodate individuals with a disability because they do not facilitate their ease of movement. Besides, some sanitation areas do not have the washrooms for individuals who use wheelchairs hence lowering their chances of going to such places. Thus, Americans with disabilities have minimal opportunities to participate in the community and economic activities due to limited movements.

However, the length of disability determines the nature of the mobility of an individual by holding all other factors constant. A disability may be forever, half a year, or more than. Individuals with a lifetime disability have a low probability of engaging in the activities of the community to contribute to economic development. Also, their rate of dependence increases as they require assistance and favorable surrounding to undertake their tasks. On the other hand, those who experience a disability that prevails for less than six months have a high chance of returning to their normal being and participate in the developme...