Amendments Strengthen Protections for Those With Disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 ("ADAAA" or the "Amendments") became effective on January 1, 2009 and represents sweeping changes to the protections afforded under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA").

The ADAAA was passed largely in response to several Supreme Court decisions of the past decade which narrowed the scope of protection offered by the ADA, especially with respect to those individuals covered by the ADA. In the Amendments, Congress explicitly rejects several of these holdings as well as the reasoning and interpretations in cases such as Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams, and Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc., where the Court applied a strict interpretation standard to the ADA.

Click here to read the full article which was originally published in the March 11, 2009 edition of Delaware Law Weekly.