The ADA prohibits discrimination in all employment practices, including job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. It applies to recruitment, advertising, tenure, layoff, leave, fringe benefits, and all other employment-related activities.

Yes. The ADA defines qualified to mean a person who meets legitimate skill, experience, education, or other requirements of an employment position that s/he holds or seeks, and who can perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation. Requiring the ability to perform "essential" functions assures that an individual with a disability will not be considered unqualified simply because of inability to perform marginal or incidental job functions. If the individual is qualified to perform essential job functions except for limitations caused by a disability, the employer must consider whether the individual could perform these functions with a reasonable accommodation. If a written job description has been prepared in advance of advertising or interviewing applicants for a job, this will be considered as evidence, although not conclusive evidence, of the essential functions of the job.

Reasonable accommodation is any modification or adjustment to a job or the work environment that will enable a qualified applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the application process or to perform essential job functions. Reasonable accommodation also includes adjustments to assure that a qualified individual with a disability has rights and privileges in employment equal to those of employees without disabilities.

An employee with a disability who has been granted medical leave under the ADA may return to the same job unless the employer demonstrates that holding the job open would cause undue hardship to the business or organization.  If an employer has the reasonable belief that an employee will be unable to continue performing essential job functions, or will pose a significant risk to the health or safety of him/herself or other employees due to a medical condition, the employer may make disability-related inquiries or require the employee to have a medical examination. Any inquiry or examination must be limited to what is needed to assess the employee's ability to work. The employer may not use the employee's leave as a justification for making unrelated inquiries or requiring an unrelated medical examination.

The ADA does not require the installation of a detectable warning. However, if the project is funded by Department of Transportation (DOT), a detectable warning would be required. Check with DOT for further guidance and your state code for any additional requirement. 

A public entity must ensure that individuals with disabilities are not excluded from services, programs, and activities because existing buildings are inaccessible. A State or local government's programs, when viewed in their entirety, must be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. This standard, known as "program accessibility," applies to facilities of a public entity that existed on January 26, 1992. Public entities do not necessarily have to make each of their existing facilities accessible. They may provide program accessibility by a number of methods including alteration of existing facilities, acquisition or construction of additional facilities, relocation of a service or program to an accessible facility, or provision of services at alternate accessible sites.

If the start date for construction is on or after March 15, 2012, all newly constructed or altered State and local government facilities must comply with the 2010 Standards. Before the date, the 1991 Standards (without the elevator exemption), the UFAS, or the 2010 Standards may be used for such projects when the start of construction commences on or after September 15, 2010.

Effective March 15, 2012, the applicable standards for new construction and alterations for a public entity under Title II are the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.

There are two types of accessible guest rooms, one type having "mobility features" and the other "communication features". The minimum number of accessible guest rooms in newly constructed facilites is provided in Table 224.2 (mobility features) and 224.4 (communication features) of the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Note that for rooms with mobility featires, roll-in showers will be required where the total number of guest rooms provided exceeds 50. 

In alterations and additions, the minimum required number of accessible guest rooms required is based on the total number of guest rooms being altered or added instead of the total number of guest rooms provided in a facility. Note, that where guest rooms are altered, or not added, the technical requirements stated in the 2010 ADA Standards apply only to those guest rooms being altered or added until the total number of accessible guest room in the entire hotel complies with the minimum number required for new construction as stated in the tables referred to above. 

Accessible guest rooms must be dispersed among the various classes of guest rooms, and provide choices of types of guest rooms, number of beds, and other amenities comparable to the choices provided to other guests. Typically, each alteration of a facility is limited to a particular portion of the facility. As accessible guest rooms are added as a result of subsequent alterations, the requred degree of dispersion is more likely to be achieved if all of the accessible guest rooms are not provided in the same portion of the facility. 

In a situation where the requirements of both a state or local building code and the 2010 ADA Standards need to be simultaneously considered, the code or Standard that results in greater accessibility takes precedence. This interpretation is based on the concept of "equivalent facilitation" from section 103 of the 2010 ADA Standards which states that alternative standards for the use of designs, products, or technologies can be used as long as they result in substantially equivalent or greater accessibility and usability. Thus, a state or local code can be used if it contains a requirement that provides a different but greater level of accessibility than the 2010 ADA Standards. 

If the use of a state or local code instead of the 2010 ADA Standard is challenged, the covered entity is responsible for defending the use of this code. The ADA accessibility requirements do not supplant or replace State or local laws that impose higher accessibility standards. The governing principal to follow when federal, state, or local codes differ is that the more stringent requirement applies. 

The installation of an elevator in altered facility that is less than three stories or has less than 3,000 square feet per story is not required, (except, with respect to any facility that houses a shopping center, a shopping mall, the professional office of a health care provider, a terminal, depot, or other station used for specified public transportation, or an airport passenger terminal).

For the purposes of this section, professional office of a health care provider means a location where a person or entity regulated by a State to provide professional services related to the physical or mental health of an individual makes such services available to the public. The facility that houses a professional office of a health care provider only includes floor levels housing by at least one health care provider, or any floor level designed or intended for use by at least one health care provider. 

For the purposes of this section, shopping center or shopping mall means-

A building housing five or more sales or rental establishments; or 

A series of buildings on a common site, connected by a common pedestrian access route above or below the ground floor, that is either under common ownership or common control or developed either as one project or as a series of related projects, housing five or more sales or rental establishments.

For purposes of this section, places of public accommodation of the types listed in paragraph (5) of the definition of place of public accommodation in § 36.104 are considered sales or rental establishments. The facility housing a "shopping center or shopping mall" only includes floor levels housing at least one sales or rental establishment, or any floor level designed or intended for use by at least one sales or rental establishment.

Effective March 15, 2012, the applicable standards for new construction and alterations for a place of public accommodation under Title III are the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.  

As amended in 1990, the Internal Revenue Code allows a deduction of up to $15,000 per year for expenses associated with the removal of qualified architectural and transportation barriers.

The 1990 amendment also permits eligible small businesses to receive a tax credit for certain costs of compliance with the ADA. An eligible small business is one whose gross receipts do not exceed $1,000,000 or whose workforce does not consist of more than 30 full-time workers. Qualifying businesses may claim a credit of up to 50 percent of eligible access expenditures that exceed $250 but do not exceed $10,250. Examples of eligible access expenditures include the necessary and reasonable costs of removing architectural, physical, communications, and transportation barriers; providing readers, interpreters, and other auxiliary aids; and acquiring or modifying equipment or devices.

Not necessarily. The maneuvering clearances specified applies to doors that are not automatic or power-assisted. Where automatic doors and gates remain open in the power-off condition, maneuvering clearances shall not be required.

No. In general, "level" means having a slope no greater than 1:48 (2%) in any direction.

Yes. Entrances, doors, and doorways providing user passage into and within guestrooms must be accessible.  This is required for all guestrooms including those guestrooms not required to have mobility features.  Showers and sauna doors in guest rooms not required to provide mobility features do not have to be accessible.

Means of egress shall comply with section 1003.2.13 of the International Building Code (2000 edition and 2001 Supplement) or section 1007 of the International Building Code (2003 edition) (incorporated by reference, see "Referenced Standards" in Chapter 1).

EXCEPTIONS:

Where means of egress are permitted by local building or life safety codes to share a common path of egress travel, accessible means of egress shall be permitted to share a common path of egress travel.

Areas of refuge shall not be required in detention and correctional facilities.

It is important to remember that in the context of the ADA, “disability” is a legal term rather than a medical one. Because it has a legal definition, the ADA’s definition of disability is different from how disability is defined under some other laws.

The ADA defines a person with a disability as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity. This includes people who have a record of such an impairment, even if they do not currently have a disability. It also includes individuals who do not have a disability but are regarded as having a disability. The ADA also makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person based on that person’s association with a person with a disability.

Yes, the ADA definition of disability includes mental, as well as physical, impairments.

The service animal must be permitted to accompany the individual with a disability to all areas of the facility where customers are normally allowed to go. An individual with a service animal may not be segregated from other customers.  If a service animal’s presence compromises safety or is disruptive to the purpose of the business, they can be excluded from a specific facility such as a surgery or intensive care unit in a hospital in which a sterile field is required.

An OPDMD is any mobility device powered by batteries, fuel, or other engines that is used by individuals with mobility disabilities for the purpose of locomotion, whether or not it was designed primarily for use by individuals with mobility disabilities. OPDMDs may include golf carts, electronic personal assistance mobility devices, such as the Segway® Personal Transporter (PT), or any mobility device that is not a wheelchair, which is designed to operate in areas without defined pedestrian routes. Covered entities must make reasonable modifications in their policies, practices, or procedures to permit individuals with mobility disabilities to use OPDMDs unless the entity can demonstrate that the class of OPDMDs cannot be operated in accordance with legitimate safety requirements adopted by the entity.