The Underwhelming Impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act

The 2008 amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were intended to expand the protection against discrimination for persons with disabilities beyond the Supreme Court\u27s narrow interpretation of who is disabled. While the amendments and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) regulations address some of the Court\u27s narrow interpretations of the ADA, lower courts may still be able to limit coverage of persons with disabilities who are still able to perform tasks that involve a major life activity, which is limited by their impairment, and persons who have impairments with temporary or intermittent effects. Claimants may also be excluded if they fail to make a concrete comparison of their impairment to others in the general population and to other plaintiffs with similar impairments who have come before them, or if they fail to present professional evidence supporting the extent of their limitations. More importantly, courts may continue to make the largely factual determinations regarding whether the claimant is substantially limited in a major life activity, rather than allowing a jury to decide whether the claimant is covered by the ADA