January 1, 2019 will mark the ten-year anniversary of the effective date of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), the 2008 federal law that revised the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to expand workplace protection to qualified individuals with disabilities.
In the intervening ten years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the federal agency responsible for enforcing the employment provisions of the ADA – has issued ADAAA implementing regulations, continued to receive and investigate charges of alleged ADA discrimination, issued interpretive guidance to its investigators, and litigated cases seeking to solidify the agency’s broad interpretation of the ADAAA. Moreover, private parties continue to litigate disability cases, often attempting to expand the bounds of the ADAAA’s protection.
As the law has developed, employers have had to adjust (and continue to adjust) their policies, practices, and procedures in an effort to remain compliant in what often seems to be an ever-changing landscape.
Accordingly, in commemoration of the ADAAA’s ten-year anniversary, we thought it would be helpful to take an in-depth look at the ADAAA, tracking its trajectory through the EEOC, the courts, and within the workplace in a three-part memo series. In Part I, we review the impetus behind the ADAAA and what it changed. In Part II, we’ll take a closer look at how the EEOC has interpreted and enforced the ADAAA, and some of the practical impacts the law has had on covered employers. In Part III, we’ll explore how the courts have interpreted the ADAAA, and outline some areas where further changes to the law could occur in the next few years.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.