This unique guidebook presents a comprehensive analysis of the new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the most significant federal civil rights law in almost 30 years, and its impact on over four million American businesses, state and local governments, nonprofit associations, 87 percent of America's private sector jobs, and 22.7 million working-age people with disabilities.
Written by two Washington-based experts on the new federal mandate, the book relies on extensive interviews with federal officials and the expert opinion of business leaders, leaders in the disability community, and the authors of the legislation. Fersh and Thomas provide a clear analysis of the final federal regulations and their implications for businesses, nonprofit associations, state and local governments, and managers and employers who need to make modifications to physical barriers in places of public accommodation, such as stores and restaurants, and in barriers to equal employment in the workplace. The book uses case histories and Congressional reports and testimony to illustrate new employment procedures—from applications, testing, and insurance benefits to job descriptions, reasonable accommodation, and new rights in telecommunications and public ground transportation. The social, legislative, and economic history that led to the law's enactment is illustrated through photographs and 18 tables. Included are specific guidelines on how to interview and work with people with disabilities, containing specific sections on people who use wheelchairs, and people with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, hearing and visual impairments, AIDS, speech impairments, learning disabilities, and mental illness. Also featured are how to sections for developing a compliance plan, implementing reasonable accommodation, and how to create an ADA awareness program for employees. The book explores the successful use of workers with disabilities in companies over the last twenty years, and the high costs of unemployment among working-age people with disabilities in tax revenues and lost productivity. Leaders and experts, such as I. King Jordan, Ph.D., president of Gallaudet University, provide short articles on their perspective of the ADA.