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Hello and welcome to the Disability Law Lowdown’s ASL podcast. My name is AJ Roupp and I am one of your hosts for this ASL podcast show. We are so glad that you found us and we hope you enjoy the different ASL podcasts we put together.

Today we will have a very brief overview on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In future podcasts we’ll delve more deeply into different topics such as: “how to request an interpreter,” “who must provide an interpreter,” “your rights when you are stopped by a law enforcement officer for a traffic violation" such as speeding or running a red light for example, “effective communication with law enforcement” and “reasonable accommodations in employment.”

Probably everyone watching this podcast has heard about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA is a civil rights law for people with disabilities which was passed in 1990. The ADA is divided into five sections called "Titles".

Title I covers employment, which we’ll talk more about in few minutes.

Title II covers programs and services provide by state and local governments. These must be accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Title III covers different places for public accommodation. That includes many places you can think of such as– stores, spas, salons, restaurants, bars, comedy clubs, gas stations, law offices, doctor’s offices, banks, movie theaters, sports stadiums, and lots of other places for instance. These must accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Title IV covers telecommunications – things like closed captioning, relay services, video relay, TDD/TTY, and those kinds of technology devices and services.

Title V covers miscellaneous requirements, including retaliation. That means it is unlawful for an employer to retaliate against you just because you pursued your rights under the ADA.

To be covered by the ADA, a person must have one of three requirements: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or have a record of such an impairment, or be regarded as having such an impairment. Hearing is one of many major life activities. Not every person who is hard of hearing will be covered by the ADA, though. This is because the limitation must be substantial --- not trivial, but that is profound enough to impact a person’s daily life activities.

For example, an elderly woman is told by her doctor that her hearing is likely to worsen and in few years she may need hearing aids. That woman, even though she might not hear as well as she used to, is not yet substantially limited in a major life activity so she would not be covered by the ADA. Most individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing are covered by the ADA, though.

Back to Title I of the ADA, which covers employment: First, for clarification: An employer is a person who hires another person for a job. If an employer has 15 or more employees, then he is covered by the ADA. In some states, smaller employers are covered by state disability discrimination laws. But for the ADA, an employer must have 15 or more employees to be covered by the ADA. For example, a small employer with 8 employees could refuse to hire someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, and that is legal for small employers to do that.

An employee or applicant for a job must meet three ciriteria to be covered by the ADA: They must have disability. They must be qualified to do the job. That means that they have the skill and experience required for the job. They must able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation. We will spend a lot more time discussing what “reasonable accommodations” are in future podcast.

So that is a brief overview on the ADA. As I said earlier, the two hosts (I am one of them) of this unique ASL podcast show, will review lots of specific topics within the ADA in more detail in future podcasts. Thanks for watching us!

I hope you enjoyed watching this ASL video podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can subscribe either through iTunes or our website at ASL.DisabilityLawLowdown.com where you can watch all of the episodes. The Disability Law Lowdown (DLL) is sponsored by the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers, a network of ten ADA Centers around the country that provide training and technical assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA Centers are supported by NIDRR. You can call us at 1-800-949-4232. That is a voice line, so you can use video relay services, but that is not a VP number. You can also call direct to that number using a TTY. Thanks for watching us!