Barbara: It is good to be here this morning. This is a topic that is very close to my heart. I get calls all the time from students and faculty. One time, I got a call from a student, the faculty, and a vocational rehab counselor, and it took me about a week to realize they were talking about the same scenario. This is really a very good example of the blind man and the elephant situation.
I would like to lay out the rules, which are the laws in this case, that govern fieldwork in terms of students with disabilities. That will be the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), The Rehabilitation Act, and the ADA Restoration Act. It is very important to understand these laws in order to work with students with disabilities in the fieldwork context, and there is a lot of information about them.
The Rehabilitation Act
The first law that came about was the Rehabilitation Act that passed in 1973. This said that:
Basically, you cannot discriminate against them. At that time, it covered agencies of the federal government. The federal government could not discriminate in hiring, in services, et cetera. The second part, Section 503, covered federal government contractors. So, if you were a federal government contractor, you could not discriminate. Then the last one were programs that received or benefited from federal funding. These are universities, hospitals, etc, and we are going to go into a little more detail about those.
What is applicable here in the fieldwork context would be placing students at a VA hospital, for example, because a VA hospital is the federal government. VA hospitals cannot discriminate against students with disabilities. Or if you were putting someone in a civilian position in a military hospital or in a prison health setting, they could not discriminate.
Section 503
Section 503 says that employers that contract with the federal government must not only not discriminate, but they must recruit and hire people with disabilities, There is an affirmative action piece of this, with a goal of 7% of the workforce. I am not sure what is going to happen now, because that was increased by President Obama through executive action. Regardless, there is an amount that they must achieve. Knowing this, you want to recommend that students with disabilities apply for jobs with federal contractors. The scope of federal contractors is very broad. I go to employment fairs because a program I am working with that places people with spinal cord injuries, and they have employment fairs for just these federal contractors. At one of these fairs, I saw a small power company that provided power to one little town on Long Island. I said to them, "What are you doing here?" They sold power to the post office and that made them a federal contractor. It affects more businesses than you think.
Section 504
Section 504, of the Rehab Act, provides coverage for employers who benefit from or receive federal funds, entities. Universities benefit from student loan money. Hospitals and physicians' offices receive Medicare and Medicaid. There is an exception for Medicare Part B, and that is not covered. However it does not matter, because now everybody is getting Medicaid funding, Affordable Care Act funding, have federal employers, or federal employee health insurance. Just about everybody is covered under 504. If they do not get federal funding, that is what the ADA was passed for, and we will talk about that in a sec.
Section 504 covers discrimination in employment and in participation in programs. Student placement is a program offered by a practice, hospital, or a school. It is not employment, but it is a program. If you discriminate against a student with a disability, you violate Section 504. If you violate Section 504, the penalty is you can lose federal funding and other damages. You are putting yourself at risk for losing the student loan money, grants, et cetera.
American With Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA was passed to cover the gaps. While the 504 applied to the federal government, government contractors, and beneficiaries of federal funds, there were still other entities where it did not apply. For example, it did not apply to the local pizza place, store, or movie theater; places people go to in the communities.
ADA History
The ADA was passed in 1990 after 17 congressional hearings, five committee markups, 63 public forums across the country, 8,000 pages of testimony, oral and written, and a lot of input from everyone across the country. This was definitely not a bill that was passed in five days like some other bills that have happened lately.
Bipartisan Vote
The vote was bipartisan, with a vote for of 76-8 in the Senate, and in the House, 403-20. We do not see this kind of bipartisanship these days. The Senate passed the bipartisan ADA Conference Report by a vote of 91-6 and in the House this passes by a sweeping majority of 377-28. Everything passed and everybody was happy with this bill.
Purpose of ADA
The purpose of the ADA is to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability, provide broad coverage, and vigorous and effective remedies (Americans with Disabilities Act § 2(b) [42 U.S.C. § 12101(b)]).
Congress found that 43 million Americans were individuals with disabilities, at that time. That number has increased due to Baby Boomers aging, proliferation of the number of people with autism, et cetera. Congress intended the ADA to be interpreted broadly. "No covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability (not every person with a disability, but a qualified individual with a disability) because of the disability of the person." The ADA is very consistent with section 504. They took the 504, played with it a little bit, and turned it into the ADA.
Definition
It defines disability, with respect to an individual as:
- A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual; (This is the original definition. It changed in the ADA Amendments Act, so tweaked a little bit.)
- A record of such an impairment; or
- Being regarded as having such an impairment.
Americans with Disabilities Act §, 102(3)(2) 42 USC § 12102
A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities is the first part of the definition. We can all think of examples of that. It can be a person with a stroke who has difficulty eating. It could be a child with autism who has difficulty learning or concentrating. The second definition is someone who has a record of such impairment. This could be someone who had cancer, and now they no longer have cancer. Perhaps someone was in a psych hospital at one time, or had an addiction problem. This refers to something that is no longer an impairment. The last one is being regarded as having an impairment. This one is a situation where you really do not have an impairment, but people think you do. An example of that is someone who is gay and loses a bunch of weight. Someone might say, "I think Bill has AIDS because he has lost all this weight." Bill does not have AIDS, but people start treating him as if he does. He is regarded as having an impairment since AIDS is considered a disability. People who are regarded as having an impairment are not entitled to accommodations under the ADA, but we will talk more about that later.
