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Full-Text Articles in Disability Law
"Working" With The Ada's "Regarded As" Definition Of A Disability, Thomas E. Simmons
"Working" With The Ada's "Regarded As" Definition Of A Disability, Thomas E. Simmons
Thomas E. Simmons
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination against and mandates accommodations for individuals with disabilities. As a threshold matter, the Act requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that she is an individual with a disability; that is, that she has an actual disability or is "regarded as" having a disability as the statute defines it. This article discusses the threshold "regarded as" showing as refined by three Supreme Court cases decided in the summer of 1999. Although in the past the "regarded as" definition has often played "second fiddle" to the "actual disability" definition, the author suggests that there …