EMPLOYMENT UNDER THE ADA: A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The Americans with Disabilities Act1 (ADA) is historic because it is the first comprehensive civil rights law for millions of persons with disabilities. Title I covers em ployment and may be the ADA's single most important title, since em ployment is the key to independence. This article will examine Title I in light of other civil rights measures, and then will discuss the employment provisions in detail, concentrating on those areas that are likely to generate the most controversy, and using the regulations recently issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as a reference point. Because the EEOC regulations are well-organized and are likely to be the single most important inter pretive tool for many of the ADA's employment provisions, most of the article will follow the organizational pattern established by those regula tions.