On July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act. This episode defines basic key ADA vocabulary and rules explaining what qualifies as a disability and what includes a major life activity. You will also have access to a free chapter of my course, College & Disabilities, 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know. This is a 17-minute video that details guidelines and accommodations recommended by the ADA.
Free video: College & Disabilities: 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know - Chapter 2 The Americans with Disabilities Act.
College & Disabilities: 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know
On July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act. This episode defines basic key ADA vocabulary and rules explaining what qualifies as a disability and what includes a major life activity. You will also have access to a free chapter of my course, College & Disabilities, 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know. This is a 17-minute video that details guidelines and accommodations recommended by the ADA.
Free video: College & Disabilities: 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know - Chapter 2 The Americans with Disabilities Act.
College & Disabilities: 9 Changes from High School Every Parent Should Know
Mickie 0:00
Today is the 32nd anniversary of the ADA the Americans with Disabilities Act. And so today I am going to revisit a podcast I did back in March of 2021. What Counts as an ADA Disability for College. On July 26 1990, President George HW Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA saying these words with a shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down. The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, but what is a disability under the ADA and is having one enough to be covered by the ADA. Welcome to College, Disabilities, and Success episode 13. What counts as a disability for college by Mickie Hayes. The opinions in this podcast are my own, please reach out to your college physician or legal services. For additional information. The ABA defines disabilities as a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The protection extends not only to individuals who currently have a disability, but those with a record of mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities are those who are perceived or regarded as having a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. So the ADA has extended the definition to someone who has a mental or physical impairment is regarded as having one or has a record of having one. But you should notice in each case that the key phrase substantially limits one or more major life activities is included. And that is an important phrase as far as the ADA is concerned. Now, I am not a lawyer. So if you are getting into some of the legal technicalities of the law, you need to see a lawyer to talk about any specific questions that you might have with regards to the ADA and what it covers and what it doesn't cover. But you can find a lot of information on the ADA website ADA.gov. And there you will get the definition and all of the parameters and guidelines that they have established around the ADA. So please, if you have any legal questions regarding the ADA speak to a lawyer, the law says that a disability substantially limits one or more major life activities. So what exactly does that mean? And what is a major life activity? Well, an impairment cannot be a disability unless it limits something. And so they use the term major life activity to mean those activities that are central to our daily lives. According to the department's regulations. A major life activity includes walking, seeing, hearing, breathing, caring for oneself, sitting, standing, lifting, learning, thinking, working, and performing manual tasks that are central to daily life. This is not a complete list of major life activities.
Mickie 3:21
So other activities may also qualify. So if you have any questions regarding exactly what is a major life activity, again, the lawyer can help clarify that for you. The ADA defines a substantial limitation as something that is severe, significant, considerable, or to a large degree, the ADA protects people with serious long term conditions. It does not protect people with minor short term conditions do know that if you're in a situation at college, and something happens to you physically, for example, you break an arm and you can't right, that would impact your ability to do a major life activity. And in those cases, Disability Services can address a temporary situation by giving you temporary accommodations, but they will have parameters established at the college under what guidelines they can follow in order to allow that to qualify for temporary accommodations. So if you have a condition like that, where you possibly broken arm and it limits your ability to substantially right, that could qualify if you broke your arm and it really doesn't impact your day to day life, then that would not qualify. So you have to consider the situation and if you're not sure you would talk to the disability specialist to get clarification. The Supreme Court did establish that situations like vision problems where you wear glasses or high blood pressure that's under control may not constitute a disability. If you feel as though your vision problems or your blood pressure problems do impact your day-to-day life significantly and are not impacted by mitigating measures, such as eyeglasses or blood pressure medication, then again, that's time to have a conversation with the people with the disability services. blood pressure medication in particular could impact your day-to-day living. If you have a problem or issue with medication, the bottom-line is don't assume anything, talk to the disability services and get their professional expert opinion on if and how they can help you in a situation today's podcast was a short and sweet look at the ATA and a few things about the ATA. But I have a much more extensive video that you can get. It's about a 17 minute video that I put together as part of my course. And you can get it for free this time with the link in today's show notes. And it goes into a lot of specifics about the ADA the types of accommodations that you can get on the ADA the types of accommodations that you qualify for based on the ADA and a lot of different insights into how the ADA is impacting college students. So it's just a little extra bonus about the ADA that I have available for you. I hope you found today's podcast worthwhile. If you have any questions, you can send me an email at Mickie teachers@gmail.com That's M I C KIEteachers@gmail.com. Or you can stop by my website, MickIE teaches.com. But in the meantime, as always have a great rest of the day. We'll talk again soon. Bye. Information contained throughout this podcast has been gleaned from my own personal experiences, but to ensure accuracy please contact the Disability Services at the college of your choice to have first-hand information and the most up-to-date policies and procedures followed by your particular institution of higher education. The content in any of these podcasts is not intended as a substitute for information from legal, educational or medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your attorney or qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have with regards to legal educational or medical concerns.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai