MCLE Self-study: A Look Back: Title VII, the Rehabilitation Act, and the ADA

by Jinny Kim

Jinny Kim is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Disability Rights Program at LAS-ELC. She joined LAS-ELC in 1999 as the Felix Velarde-Munoz Fellow. Thereafter, she was a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow where she served as Labor Counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy on the Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Prior to returning to LAS-ELC in 2008, Ms. Kim held positions at the Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, as well as Schneider, Wallace, Cottrell, Brayton and Konecky, and Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian.

Introduction

July 26, 2015 marked twenty-five years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This landmark law prohibits discrimination against, and provides civil rights protections to, tens of millions of people with disabilities in employment and other areas such as public services, public accommodations, and telecommunication services. This article examines the influence of earlier civil rights laws on the origins and development of the ADA’s employment provisions, including the ADA’s hallmark that employers have an affirmative duty to provide "reasonable accommodation."