The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

Words: 872
Pages: 4

The Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as ADA, was enforced in 1990 when the congress recognized that discrimination against people with disabilities is a persuasive problem. The ADA act helps reinforce regulations through codes that all built environments must meet. However, there are still problems in our built environments that do not meet the standards of ADA and a majority of them lye within discrimination in the workplace. In today’s society, people with disabilities still have to go through many obstacles in their life, finding a job in an equal opportunity workplace, being in a safe environment, and discovering creative solutions through every day problems.
Employers must consider a person in the workplace through the ADA
…show more content…
According to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Disability discrimination occurs when an employer or other entity covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, or the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, treats a qualified individual with a disability who is an employee or applicant unfavorably because she has a disability.” There is a majority of people in the United States who have disabilities and are unable to find a job that will fit their description. In the United States, the amount of people with disabilities who are unemployed is by far more than people who do not have a disability. This issue has caused an employment gap. A “gap” is defined as the number of percentage points between people with and without disabilities on a given indicator. Since the 1990 ADA regulations have been passed, one would think that today …show more content…
The decline in the employment gap has been decreasing, but it still remains large and the decline has been slow. It is important for facility managers to focus on those key measures where the gap is increasing or has not even changed, to hopefully make improvements in the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Also while the Kessler Foundation was constructing their research they found that, “Over two and five (43%) have encountered a form of job discrimination in the workplace.” In the past five years, the highest percentage that they encountered was getting refused a job because of a disability and next after that was getting paid less than other workers with similar jobs and similar skills and next after that was that they were denied health insurance. To be in a situation where individuals with disabilities are not having an equal opportunity in the workplace, they can either give up and find another job or figure out a more creative solution to get involved with the rejection. Most of the individuals who took part in the study feel comfortable talking about their disabilities in the workplace, but they feel like it would be hard to easily find a better job in the current job