The ADA Amendments Act

There can be some confusion over the "new ADA" versus the "old ADA." In reality, the "new ADA" is actually the ADA Amendments Act, or the ADAAA. After the ADA was originally passed in 1990, cases started being filed and ending up in courts. Some were appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rulings by the Supreme Court, as well as the lower courts, began to narrow the definition of disability. Whether a person had a disability in order to sue became the focus of most disputes under the ADA, and Congress never intended for it to be that way. The focus of the ADA was supposed to be on access and accommodation, not on whether a person really had a disability. Congress had not foreseen the ways in which the courts would narrowly interpret, and ultimately change, the definition.

The ADAAA was passed in 2008 and essentially overturned those Supreme Court cases that narrowed the definition of disability. Congress made clear that the definition must be "construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals" with disabilities. So rather than this being a "new ADA," it is really just going back to the way Congress meant the ADA to be when it was first written and passed in 1990.