Analysis of Americans With Disabilities Act, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Legislators in Congress created and approved the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, making it a part of US law. This policy aimed to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to jobs, public facilities, and other public spaces. However, so many people were unhappy when they realized they had to accept change, which was not what they had hoped for after passing the new legislation. For this course, students were asked to extensively study a subject connected to higher education policy and legislation.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will be examined in-depth in this article (ADA). About students in higher education, it gives an overview of issues related to and raised by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as examples of actual cases and possible solutions to the thorny problems raised by the ADA in the context of these institutions’ funding and accessibility for students with disabilities. Concerning both business and employee viewpoints, this article will examine the abovementioned policy and how it protects disabled workers’ rights.

Background

The Americans With Disabilities Act was the first step in the history of deaf rights. However, the Ada saga started years before that year. Disabled people and deaf people, in particular, have been battling injustice and discrimination for a long time. Still, they realized the fruits of their labor only when the first ADA was introduced in Congress in 1988. The White House eventually hosted the signing ceremony. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990. The Disabled in Action (DIA), a disability rights organization, is responsible for the ADA’s inception (Blanck, 2019). Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act brought about the first important shift in disability policy that year. It stated that discrimination based on disability was forbidden. Despite this, many deaf persons have a difficult time finding work.

Although deaf people’s talents are severely restricted, they nonetheless have the potential to get a college degree. Teachers who work with deaf or hard-of-hearing pupils have long faced a challenging and contentious responsibility. Students with hearing impairments may attend Gallaudet University, a specialized institution. Specialized instruction was being offered for the first time at this institution. In terms of American Sign Language, it is the world’s foremost authority. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, an American educational pioneer, inspired the school’s name.

Racism in the deaf community was seen as a danger by some. Deaf education and the psychology of speech were two of Alexander Graham Bell’s passions. He was instructing the deaf in the Visible Speech. As the Boston school’s founder in 1872 to train special-needs educators, Melville Bell was the first to develop this alphabet. A study by Alexander Bell in 1884 titled “The Formation of a Deaf Race” was published. A ‘deaf race’ will be created; he told the country (Douglas, 2019). He advocated removing sign language to keep them from mingling and marrying. In response to such fanaticism, the National Association of the Deaf rose to the challenge and won. Defending their cherished dialect necessitated a $5k fundraising effort for 18 films.

Disabled persons in the 1960s and early 1970s organized local organizations to lobby for their rights. They aspired for fairness and equality for themselves and their children with disabilities. Instead of being integrated into the normal curriculum, most impaired pupils were sent to special education programs. Although disabled children are not allowed to attend regular schools, they may graduate from Gallaudet University, a specialized college for the impaired. In terms of jobs, it has its own. According to Forber-Pratt, (2019) in January of that year, a new program was launched. For those with impairments, the proposal offered “full financing of the Work Incentives Improvement Act.” Participants in the Ticket to Work program get “vocational assistance and employment” as part of their Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Unlike specialized programs, finding a career suitable for someone deaf or hard of hearing is very difficult.

Disabled students must be “otherwise qualified” for disability protection, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act (RA). ‘Otherwise qualified,’ as used in the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, was not defined. Individuals with disabilities who fulfill the academic and technical requirements required for participation in a recipient’s educational program or activity are defined by the rules as being qualified. Southeastern Community College v. Davis (1997), a decision handed down by the Supreme Court in 1997, served as a precedent for the 1990 decision and the 2008 ADA Amendments Act. ADA and the Rehabilitation Act are both based on the same definition. Administrative entities deal with student difficulties, such as Section 504 and Title II and III of the ADA, which give direction.

Accessibility for the deaf has increased. As a result, many organizations now take advantage of their increased visibility by incorporating sign language into their events. Many competent sign interpreters are lacking, though. Deaf people from their communities should indeed be able to converse with others. Others should not be alarmed by these facts. Deaf individuals may now converse with hearing people thanks to contemporary assistive listening devices. The risk of forming a “deaf race” is eliminated since they do not have to split.

Main Reason for Introduction of the Act in the US

As a result of this recognition, the state demands equal treatment for everyone who is disabled. According to the ADA’s concerns, people in hiring positions should be evaluated on more than just their physical appearance when bringing new hires on board any company. Employers used to judge people based on their appearance before this policy was implemented; thus, the people involved felt abandoned, and there was no one to defend them. Some job seekers with disabilities never got the chance to get an interview at all because most employers assumed that their disability meant they couldn’t do the work.

Workers with impairments are just as entitled to promotions as their peers, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some businesses hire these workers but refuse to promote them even after they have worked for the company for a long time. Employers need to evaluate workers based on their performance and the outcomes they produce. It was difficult for companies, particularly medium-sized ones, to comply with the ADA at the time of its implementation since they realized they had to rearrange parts of their facilities to accommodate individuals with disabilities fully.

Americans with Disabilities Act

A few legislations in American history have had such a profound impact as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Before the ADA, companies may refuse to hire a disabled person because of their disability. They were turned away or fired from a job for no other reason than their physical impairment. People with disabilities are afforded the same civil rights protections as those of other races, ages, and religions under the ADA. The statute ensures equal access to public accommodations, employment, transit, state and local government services, and telecommunications for those with disabilities and those without impairments. According to polls, there has been an upsurge in employment for seriously handicapped people. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has two fascinating and perhaps frightening elements. First, because it legislates based on how others see someone, the ADA provides legal protection for anyone mistakenly labeled “disabled” by others.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first provision of the disability statute to apply to postsecondary educational institutions. Discrimination based on disability was outlawed in all federally funded programs. Section 504 of the HEOA defines “programs” as including postsecondary education. Higher education institutions depend heavily on government funding, including most of them. However, additional legislation, such as the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, was built on the Civil Rights Act. In addition, many physical and intellectual obstacles to people with impairments were eliminated by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was perhaps the most significant step for the handicapped population. One of these laws was the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. As previously mentioned, the ADA improved on prior legislation by outlawing discrimination against people with disabilities.

There are a lot of biases in employment, which is why this policy’s initial title concentrates on this topic. This is because there have been and will continue to be many instances of persons with disabilities being refused equal employment opportunities. Disabilities aren’t always incapacity since many afflicted individuals have exceptional talents in other areas, often even better and more advanced than those who are not disabled. However, even when individuals with disabilities have been granted equal chances, such as access to school, excluding them from employment may seem insulting since their talents will be thrown away rather than put to good use. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), companies must provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants, including impaired ones.

The Commission on Equal Employment Opportunities

A commission in the United States for job rights for individuals with impairments. When it comes to ensuring that persons with disabilities are treated fairly in the workplace, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) serves as a watchdog. When it thinks that one of its members has been wronged, the commission fights for their rights to equitable treatment in court. Because of their physical disabilities, many people have been fired from their jobs by their employers. Most of these instances have gone in favor of the commission. Workforces with disabilities may make mistakes in their job. Still, employers claiming otherwise should examine their work to see how many mistakes they have made while considering that they do not have impairments on their employees. This means that no matter how disadvantaged we are, we are all prone to making mistakes.

Hiccups during Implementation

Human resources managers were under strong orders not to recruit persons with impairments before the enactment of this statute. They were perplexed by this since several job candidates had genuinely applied for jobs for which they were qualified. However, failing to follow the guidelines set out by their employers might result in dismissal. Disabled job applicants don’t apply for jobs they aren’t confident they can do, despite the common belief among employers that hiring one would increase their liabilities. In addition, the United States government invested a lot of money to meet the needs of those with disabilities.

Many of these people had skills to earn a good living if they were allowed to show them. Still, the government was looking for a way to reduce spending on them before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) introduction. Because the government expected to be freed of its burden once these individuals were fully integrated into the labor field, assisting them in finding jobs became a top priority. In the same way, if you give a guy a fish and teach him how to fish, you can feed him for eternity, but if you only teach him how to fish, he can feed himself. It would be a disaster if the government didn’t try to find a means to assist disabled people in supporting themselves since individuals are disabled every day due to accidents and congenital disabilities, and their numbers would have grown enormously.

There is no doubt that the government would have to borrow more money to care for such a large number of people, while some of them would be able to generate their own money. However, it has empowered persons with disabilities since they can now apply for employment confidently, knowing that they won’t be discriminated against because of their impairment, thanks to the implementation of the ADA. Furthermore, it is stated in the legislation that any employer that discriminates against an employee because of their handicap is subject to legal action.

As a leading example, the federal government created congressional slots for individuals with disabilities. Some posts must be reserved for individuals with disabilities in every single government agency, including parastatals. People with special needs have benefited greatly from using new technology, which has allowed them to accomplish their jobs just like everyone else. Because hearing aids allow persons with hearing loss to participate in critical job activities like decision-making because they can hear what others are saying, this kind of technology is an absolute need. As far as great occupations go, persons with impairments can only actively participate in physical tasks like construction and the military. We were mistaken about individuals with impairments participating in sports like basketball and athletics, which is why we have Paralympics to showcase their potential. At least some of them must be able to support themselves by participating in sports regularly.

Recommendations

According to the 2010 ADA Standards, there are standards for determining what paperwork is required to prove disability. Per their guidelines, the required paperwork must be acceptable and specific enough to address the specific accommodation (Lawson & Boyd, 2018). To acquire accommodations, those who have already received them should be given the highest priority. In addition, it stresses the need for fast answers to requests for accommodation. However, the paperwork requirements for establishing the need for accommodations remain unclear. What documentation would be required to show that a person is legally disabled? Do you know of any specialists that can give documents in this regard? What documentation should the treating professional include in the package they send back with the impaired person?

A shortage of attention is being paid to environmental factors that affect people with impairments and their prospects in the current amount of scientific on disability in higher education. Every institution should do its study how people with disabilities live their daily lives. Students with disabilities and the university’s disability office would benefit from research on various challenges at different institutions. This would help shape policy and practice in those areas. It is the institution’s role as a whole, not only the office for disability, to help and ensure impaired students succeed. Higher education institutions must build an inclusive university atmosphere to prepare and accommodate a wide range of students (Keenan et al., 2019). Rather than responding to the accommodation needs of specific students with disabilities, universities should ensure that all education and services are accessible to all students. All facets of the university’s student services, from admissions to housing, laboratories, and student groups, must offer accommodations to help students with disabilities.

Students with disabilities should have online access to all university regulations and information as a first step toward creating an inclusive institution. An online Accessibility Policy is the first step in ensuring that all electronic resources are accessible to everyone. As a guide for planning and executing university activities, the Accessibility Policy will serve as an assessment of objectives and a training resource. The accessibility policy will provide examples of how different departments may make the required concessions inside their offices to make inaccessible materials accessible and consider students with disabilities when organizing every university-wide event, no matter how minor (Singh, 2019). Each university should also set up an Americans with Disabilities Act Committee, comprised of students, staff, and administrators, to assess the university’s accessibility problems, identify access hurdles, and provide recommendations on improving the institution’s inclusiveness. All these actions will help the office for people with disabilities fulfill its mandate and turn the university into an inclusive one.

Conclusion

Generally, to reduce the protection gap and guarantee that people with disabilities are treated equally, equally well, and with respect, there has been a fundamental shift in attitude internationally in recent years. In addition to the ADA, many more regulations are in place to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to employment and other opportunities. Women and members of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities already enjoy civil rights protections created by the federal government under the ADA. People with disabilities may be treated with respect and equality thanks to the ADA and other legislation.

Hard-of-hearing persons could find work and a role in society because of the ADA and other regulations. Despite this, they still have to deal with many challenges in their daily lives. Gallaudet University greatly improves their integration and ease of finding a job. Deaf individuals still need social services; policymakers should consider expanding them. Disabled persons in the United States have long been subjected to prejudice. They could not get a job, and there was no procedure to ensure they received the same treatment as everyone else. It has to be changed. Deaf people should be given the same rights as everyone else, and sign language should be widely used and accessible.

In the workplace, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guards the rights of people with disabilities. On the other hand, it provides organizations with rules to ensure that disabled workers and customers are treated equally. Employers need to treat disabled persons as if they were their children and integrate them into their workforces the way they want them to be. Disabilities may occur at any age, so we should treat people how we want to be treated since it all comes back to us. Generally, employers should not blame their employees’ handicaps when making mistakes.

Workers with disabilities have benefited from the Americans with Disabilities Act. The folks who might have otherwise relied on welfare or compensation are now working. According to data, 25.4 percent of workers with a handicap are working, and 22.7 percent of those employees are employed full-time, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Critics of the ADA claim that the need for companies to provide reasonable accommodations has resulted in a financial burden for them. On the other hand, proponents claim that most lodgings are reasonably priced. In addition, impaired employees may benefit from having an ADA coordinator or reasonable accommodations committee at work.

References

Blanck, P. (2019). Why America is better off because of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Touro L. Rev., 35, 605.

Douglas, A. (2019). Caging the Incompetent: Why Jail-Based Competency Restoration Programs Violate the Americans with Disabilities Act under Olmstead v. LC. Geo. J. Legal Ethics, 32, 525.

Forber-Pratt, A. J. (2019). (Re) defining disability culture: Perspectives from the Americans with Disabilities Act generation. Culture & Psychology, 25(2), 241-256.

Keenan, W. R., Madaus, J. W., Lombardi, A. R., & Dukes III, L. L. (2019). Impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act on documentation for students with disabilities in transition to college: Implications for practitioners. Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, 42(1), 56-63.

Lawson, N. D., & Boyd, J. W. (2018). Do state physician health programs encourage referrals that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act?. International journal of law and psychiatry, 56, 65-70.

Singh, D. K. (2019). Educational rights of college students with disabilities. College Student Journal, 53(2), 243-251.