Lauren Lee | July 1, 2025 - Atlanta, GA

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, please enjoy an excerpt from this primer on important disability legislation. 

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act, also called the ADA, is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation for Americans with disabilities to date. It prevents discrimination based on disability, just like previous legislation banned discrimination based on gender, race, religion, and age. There are five titles that lay out specific protections, but the first two have the most relevancy to CIDI’s mission:

Title I - Employment

This part of the ADA prevents most employers from discriminating against a qualified candidate with a disability. This includes the application process, hiring, promotions, training, and anything else to do with employment.

This portion also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are done so that a person with a disability can accomplish a task. Accommodations can look like special equipment, scheduling changes, and remote/telework options, but each person with a disability might require different accommodations.

Employers are not required to provide accommodations that would prove to be an undue hardship to the company. Additionally, the person with a disability must be able to perform the essential functions of the job at the appropriate level.

CIDI specializes in research on workplace accommodations, and how they can help people with disabilities retain meaningful employment. Want to learn more? Check out our workplace accessibility research. 

Title II - State and Local Government and Public Transit

This provision makes sure that all government entities in the United States provide equal opportunity to access governmental programs for people with disabilities. This includes things like:

• Making public transit accessible
• Giving everyone the opportunity to vote
• Allowing service animals into public buildings
• Making sure that public information is available for everyone, like CIDI did working with the CDC Foundation during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In April of 2024, there was an update to Title II of the ADA. Essentially, public entities have a limited amount of time to make their websites accessible to comply with the law. At CIDI, we are the experts in accessible web content and can help your organization become compliant. If you want to learn more, you can watch a recent CIDI webinar about the Title II update here, free of charge.