President Bush Signs Significant Expansion of Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) moved through Congress swiftly and with strong bipartisan support. President Bush signed the new law on September 25, 2008, which will modify the ADA effective January 1, 2009. Once the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent on September 11, 2008, enactment was only a matter of time.

The bill was supported by a broad coalition of civil rights groups, disability advocates, and employer organizations. Disability advocates and other civil rights groups sought to reverse U.S. Supreme Court decisions that had defined covered disabilities more narrowly than many of the ADA’s original Congressional proponents had intended. Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management, supported compromise bills in the House and Senate, recognizing that some new law was inevitable and working to craft the best deal possible for employers.

The ADAAA changes the way in which courts will evaluate whether an individual is disabled for ADA purposes in several significant ways.