A Q&A by AccessiBe Experts on the Americans with Disabilities Act

For a long time in history, many barriers existed in terms of employment, transportation, public services, etc., for the people with disabilities. We can see a lot of evidence of such discrimination in the past. People with disabilities were struggling to receive proper education, do employment, enjoy equal rights, and contribute positively as dignified members of society. By breaking all these barriers, the Americans with Disabilities Act came out in 1990, which enabled the society to benefit from the talents and skills of the individuals with disabilities too by providing them equal opportunities as any other citizens in the United States.

ADA explained by AccessiBe

The Americans with Disabilities Act gives equal civil rights protection to all the individuals with various types of disabilities and gives the same status and privileges as provided to individuals on the basis of color, sex, race, age, religion, etc. ADA guarantees equal opportunities to all individuals with disabilities in terms of employment, public accommodation, transportation, local and state government services, telecommunication, etc. AccessiBe offers compliance audits for business and public information websites as well as many tools to incorporate with the websites to ensure accessibility.

Here we will discuss a few common questions related to ADA and the expert answers for those.

Q: What types of employers are covered by the ADA title? 

The Title I of employment provisions in ADA covers all the private employers with 15 or more employees as well as the local and state government employment agencies and labor unions etc.

Q: What is called reasonable accommodation under ADA?

Reasonable accommodation refers to any modifications in the work environment that will help disabled employees participate and perform all essential job requirements without discrimination.

Q: How of ADA regulates the state and local government programs and activities?

The state and local governments should illuminate any specific eligibility criteria for participation in activities and programs, referring to the ability or disability of the participants. If any public entity demonstrates that a modification in the nature of service or activity is required, then it may not be mandatory to make that modification under ADA.

Q: Are websites and online services covered under ADA?

Any Public Information Systems and entities aimed at public access are covered under ADA. It also covers the websites which are meant for Information sharing with the public. All state and local government websites should be compliant with ADA requirements as these may have screen readable elements, and HTML needs to be compliant with the requirements of accessibility. It is also made necessary by the W3C consortium to ensure that all websites are made compliant with the accessibility requirements.

Considering all these factors, it is important for businesses and other public information facilities to make their websites compliant with ADA, as like how the public spaces are maintained by ensuring accessibility needs of people with disabilities. AccessiBe offers many such tools which can be used to ensure the accessibility needs of the websites and public portals.