Disability Discrimination in Employment

The employment provisions began to be enforced for business with 25 or more employees on July 26, 1992. This affected approximately 264,000 employers. The second phase of the employment provision went into affect July 26, 1994, and was implemented for the approximately 666,000 U.S. employers with 15 or more employees. Many opponents of the ADA suggested that the law would cost small businesses too much. They contended that the legislation would backlog the courts with lawsuits from scorned job applicants. However this has not been the case. Current employees who claim a prior disability or recently disabled workers who contend that their employers have not reasonably accommodated their needs under the law have entered over eighty percent of the discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC.
According to EEOC records the most common type of disabilities suffered by workers who claim employment discrimination is back problems, which account for about eighteen percent of complaints. Mental illness has the next largest portion of complaints, making up about ten percent. It is followed by heart trouble, neurological disorders, and diabetes.…