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Starting Anew: The Ada's Disability With Respect To Episodic Mental Illness [Symposium], Camille Nelson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION: Although lay people frequently conflate a diagnosis of mental illness with the existence of a disability, these concepts should properly be separated. The inclination towards conflation might be diminished by reference to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) distinction between the existence of a disability and the legal ability to recover under the ADA. Specifically, under the ADA the claimant must not only establish a disability, which is a physical or mental impairment, but this impairment must "substantially limit one or more major life activities."' A disability is "an alteration of an individual's capacity to meet personal, social, or …