Approximately one year after former President Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), the EEOC has finally issued proposed regulations and an Interpretive Guidance for public comment. As expected, the new regulations make significant changes in how certain terms under the ADA are defined, which certainly will give rise to more disability claims. Here is a summary of the most significant changes and guidance to the regulations.
Disability
The term "disability" continues to mean either 1) physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, 2) a record of such impairment, or 3) being regarded as having such an impairment.
Actual Disability
The new regulations do not substantively change the definition of physical or mental impairment, but they do affect what constitutes a "major life activity." Specifically, major life activities are those that "most people in the general population can perform with little or no difficulty." The ADAAA provides a non-exhaustive list of activities and major bodily functions that are examples of major life activities, adding a number of major bodily functions covered such as special sense organs, skin, and musculoskeletal, among others.
With respect to redefining "substantially limits" the EEOC essentially states what it is not rather than what it is. Specifically, the EEOC states that "an impairment is a disability . . . if it ‘substantially limits' the ability of an individual to perform a major life activity as compared to most people in the general population." The new regulations then provide that the impairment does not have to prevent or significantly or severely restrict the individual from performing a major life activity, but must be more than a temporary, non-chronic impairment of a short duration that has little or no residual effects. Thus, the new definition of "substantially limits" simply states what it is not. The EEOC then provides a number of rules of construction to be used in evaluating whether or not an impairment substantially limits a major life activity.
