Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Full title	An Act to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability
Acronym	ADA
Enacted by the	101st United States Congress
Effective	July 26, 1990
Citations
Public Law	101-336
Stat.	104 Stat. 327
Codification
Title(s) amended	42
U.S.C. sections created	12101 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S.933 by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) on May 9, 1989 Passed the Senate on September 7, 1989 (76-8) Passed the House of Representatives on May 22, 1990 (unanimous voice vote) Reported by the joint conference committee on July 12, 1990; agreed to by the House of Representatives on July 12, 1990 (377 - 28) and by the Senate on July 13, 1990 (91-6) Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990
Major amendments
ADA Amendments Act of 2008
Supreme Court cases
Bragdon v. Abbott Olmstead v. L.C. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams
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The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990^[1][2] (ADA) is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009.^[3]

The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964,^[4] which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. Disability is defined by the ADA as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity." The determination of whether any particular condition is considered a disability is made on a case by case basis. Certain specific conditions are excluded as disabilities, such as current substance abuse and visual impairment which is correctable by prescription lenses.

The "original intent" of the law, as co-conceived by Lex Frieden and Mitchell J. Rappaport, was to create civil rights law protections for people with disabilities that would be permanent, would not be able to be reversed or weakened, and would prohibit all discrimination. It was also intended so that Americans with disabilities would be kept in the mainstream in terms of scientific and medical research and developments, especially opening future opportunities in Space exploration to them, as well as public policy changes, healthcare law and policy changes, and civil rights protections and public law changes for Americans with physical, mental and cognitive disabilities. It was intended to be a flexible set of laws that could only be strengthened, not weakened, by future case law.

On September 25, 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA). This was intended to give broader protections for disabled workers and "turn back the clock" on court rulings which Congress deemed too restrictive.^[5] The ADAAA includes a list of "major life activities."