The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law on the 26th of July 1990, is a comprehensive legislation intended to make the American Society more accessible to people with disabilities. It is divided into five titles such as:

1. Title I – Employment. Businesses must provide reasonable accommodations to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in all phases of employment. Possible changes may include restructuring jobs, alternating the layout of workstations, or modifying equipment. Employment aspects may include the application process, hiring, wages, benefits, and many more. Also, medical examinations are highly regulated.
2. Title II – Public Services. Public Services that include state and local government instrumentalities, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, and other commuter authorities, can’t deny services to people with disabilities, in the participation in programs or activities which are available to those without disabilities. And also, public transportation system, such as transit buses, must be accessible to disabled individuals.
3. Title III – Public Accommodations. All new construction and modifications must be accessible to people with disabilities. Public accommodations include facilities such as restaurants, grocery store, hotels, privately owned transport system.
4. Title IV – Telecommunications. Telecommunications companies that offer telephone service to the general public must have telephone relay service that use telecommunication devices, or similar devices for the deaf.
5. Title V – Miscellaneous. This title includes a provision that prohibits coercing or threatening or retaliating against the disabled or those attempting to aid people with disabilities, in asserting their rights under Americans with Disabilities Act.

The protection of Americans with Disabilities Act extends, but not limited to disabled individual. You are considered disabled if you meet any of the following:

• You have a physical or mental impairment that considerably limits one or more of your major life activities.
• You have a record of such an impairment.
• You are regarded as having such impairment.

Other individuals who are also protected in certain circumstances include those, such as parents, who have an association with individuals with disability and those who are coerced to retaliation for assisting people with disabilities in asserting their rights under Americans with Disabilities Act.

People with disabilities should not be discriminated and denied access to the things that all normal individuals (without disabilities) can easily get hold of, such as employment, transportation, public accommodations, public services, and telecommunications. Barriers to have access to those areas have imposed astounding economic and social costs on American Society and have destabilized the well-intentioned efforts to educate, rehabilitate, and employ individuals with disabilities. If those barriers are broken down, the Americans with Disabilities Act allows society to benefit from the skills and talents of those with disabilities, allows all of us to gain from their increased purchasing power and ability to use it. This will lead to a fuller life and more productive live for all Americans.

Americans with disabilities are dynamic and causative members of the public and they must have equal opportunity to develop the skills they need to participate and gain employment on the twenty-first century human resources. Through the reduction of physical barriers and false discernments, the country meets the dedication to millions of Americans with disabilities, and profits from their hard work, talents, and creativity.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) offers national leadership on disability employment policy. The organization was established to bring a permanent focal point within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and throughout the Federal government to deal with the barriers to employment facing people with disabilities and guaranteeing coordination among DOL and other federal agencies on issues related to or affecting disability employment. The office of Disability Employment Policy also supports the accomplishments of the employment-related goals of President George W. Bush’s New Freedom Initiative.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy increases and influences the realization of evidence-based disability employment policy and practice to increase preparation and management within service delivery systems, capability of service delivery systems, and employer access to supports and services. This will show the way to disability employment opportunities, as well as retention, recruitment, and promotion of disabled persons.

The mission and vision of ODEP is to provide the foundation for instituting far-reaching strategic and performance goals and support accomplishment of DOL’s strategic goals. The organization believes the Federal government’s answer to low employment pace among people with disabilities should be complete and aggressive, and necessitate the active participation and cooperation of a number of Federal agencies and private sector organizations, including employers. ODEP’s stakeholders include private and public employers and their employees, educational and training institutions, state and local government agencies, disability community, and individuals with disabilities and their families.

The organization’s plan recognizes specific performance outcomes to be accomplished and the midway results used to determine the progress. The plan describes how ODEP will add worth to the attempts of service delivery systems, their partners, and employers and meet the determined performance outcomes demanded by the stakeholders.

The organization is faced with complex matters and challenges as they develop and influence the execution of employment policy relating to people with disabilities. Millions of employees are needed to fill new jobs every year and replace those who leave their jobs. Employers look for highly skilled workers who have the experience and qualifications needed to perform the jobs effectively and who can considerably contribute to the “bottom line”. The challenge in finding qualified workers and the possibility of general scarcity are expected to increase with the retirement of the baby-boomer generation. The organization is confronted to develop disability employment policies and practices that connect supply sources with labor market end-users, efficiently providing employers with approaches to reach the hugely untapped pool of people with disabilities.

Can you imagine yourself being disabled? No, you can’t, can you? It is hard to imagine yourself being on a state of disability, especially if you are completely normal. Maybe if you have been to an accident where in you could not do a single thing by yourself, then probably you have an idea what it is like. However, for the benefit of those who have not been in an accident, have you ever thought what it would be like if you had one of the several disability types? I don’t think so. Lucky are we who are living normally everyday. That means we have everything to be thankful for every single day that passes by.

What does disability mean and what does it involves? If you have a physical or mental impairment, and if such impairment can affect your daily activities or limit you to perform daily activities, that is called disability. For example, blind people find it hard to do some things like going to school or work. However, disability does not only relate to obvious conditions such as vision or hearing disability. Actually, there are different disability types that you might care to know such as eyesight, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disability.

The following is a list of disability types:

Eyesight Disability

You are considered to have an eyesight disability if you don’t have normal vision even if you wear eyeglasses or contact lenses. Visual impairment may be caused by several eye diseases like age related muscular degeneration, cataracts, and more. There are vision impairments that can be treated medically, but there are also those that cannot be corrected medically after accidents or inherited ocular disorders.

Hearing Disability

This disability includes both people that are deaf, or have partial hearing in one or both ears. However, to correct this problem, you are required the use of a hearing aid. If you may have noticed, there are people who have hearing disability yet can still communicate through sign language.

Mobility Disability

Mobility refers to different people with varying types of physical disabilities. It is often related to individual with upper limb mobility, manual dexterity, and co-ordination problem. Mobility impairment is one of the disability types that affect movement ranging from gross motor skills like walking, to fine motor movement involving manipulation of objects by hand. Some use assistive equipment such as wheelchair or electronic strollers to be able to move around.

Cognitive Disability

Cognition is another word for thinking. It includes many different functions including our abilities to pay attention, learn and retain information, solve problems, and use language to express thoughts. Cognitive disability refers to people with dyslexia, a brain-based type of learning disability that specifically impairs your ability to read, and other learning difficulties. Learning problems, on the other hand, differs from someone who has a serious mental impairment.

You may be suffering from one or more disability types, but it does not mean there is nothing that can be done about it. Disability can lower your self-confidence, yet you can still gain control of your life with assistive equipment. Many people use them and they were able to move on and face the hardships despite their condition. So can you!