The standard citation for the Americans with Disabilities Act is Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. That is the Bluebook form used in legal writing. APA, MLA, and Chicago each rearrange the same identifiers — the act’s name, its public law number (Pub. L. 101-336), its Statutes at Large location (104 Stat. 327), and its home in the U.S. Code — into their own templates.
The Identifiers Every Citation Uses
Whatever format you’re writing in, the citation is built from the same pieces:
- Full title: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
- Public law number: Pub. L. 101-336 (the 336th law of the 101st Congress)
- Statutes at Large: 104 Stat. 327
- United States Code: 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.
Most of the ADA sits in Title 42 of the U.S. Code (public health and welfare). One piece, the telecommunications relay provision, lives at 47 U.S.C. § 225.1ADA.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended
The public law number and Statutes at Large citation point to the act as originally passed. The U.S. Code citation points to the law as it currently reads, with amendments folded in. Choose based on which version your argument actually depends on.
Legal Citation (Bluebook)
For court filings, law review articles, and legal memoranda, use Bluebook. The full-form citation is:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.
To cite a specific provision, drop “et seq.” and use the exact section. A brief discussing the ADA’s definition of “disability,” for example, would cite 42 U.S.C. § 12102.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 12101 – Findings and Purpose
If your argument turns on the original enacted text rather than the current codified version, cite the session law:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 (1990).3U.S. Government Publishing Office. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
After the first full citation, Bluebook Rule 4.1 lets you use “Id.” for the immediately preceding source. If you cited 42 U.S.C. § 12101 and now want § 12102, write: Id. § 12102. When something else has been cited in between, use the shortened form under Rule 12.10 — just the code and section, like 42 U.S.C. § 12102 — provided the full citation appeared within the same footnote or the five preceding footnotes. If not, cite the statute in full again.
Citing a Specific Title of the ADA
The ADA has five titles, each with its own starting section. Precision matters, because courts treat them as distinct schemes.
- Title I (Employment): 42 U.S.C. § 12111 et seq.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
- Title II (State and local government services): 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12131 – Definitions
- Title III (Public accommodations): 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12181 – Definitions
- Title IV (Telecommunications): 47 U.S.C. § 2257Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 225 – Telecommunications Services for Hearing-Impaired and Speech-Impaired Individuals
- Title V (Miscellaneous provisions): 42 U.S.C. § 12201 et seq.
Title IV is the outlier; it sits in Title 47, not Title 42. If your paper is only about employment discrimination, cite § 12111, not the general starting point at § 12101.
APA Style (7th Edition)
APA treats statutes as their own source type. The template is:
Name of Act, Title # Source § Section # (Year). URL
For the ADA:
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. (1990).
The year in parentheses is the publication year of the compilation you actually consulted. If you pulled the statute from a 2018 print edition of the U.S. Code, use (2018). If you read the 1990 session law, use (1990). Researchers who access the current online code should use the publication year of the most recent print edition reflected there.
In-text: (Americans With Disabilities Act, 1990). After first mention, (ADA, 1990) is fine.
MLA Style (9th Edition)
MLA builds around containers and lists the government entity as author.8MLA Style Center. Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style A works-cited entry for the ADA looks like:
United States, Congress. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Public Law 101-336. Government Publishing Office, 1990. govinfo.gov, www.govinfo.gov/app/details/STATUTE-104/STATUTE-104-Pg327.
If you accessed the law through a database such as GovInfo or the Legal Information Institute, name that database as the container. Watch the punctuation: periods separate major elements; commas separate sub-elements within a container.
Chicago Style (17th Edition)
Under Chicago’s notes-and-bibliography system, federal statutes appear only in footnotes or endnotes; they don’t need a bibliography entry. Chicago generally follows Bluebook conventions for legal sources. A footnote citing the code version reads:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.
Citing the session law instead:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 (1990).
The parenthetical year in a U.S. Code citation reflects the code edition’s publication year. For a Statutes at Large citation, it’s the year the law passed. If you accessed the statute online, add the URL at the end.
Citing the 2008 Amendments
The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) broadened the definition of “disability.” Any research about how disability is defined after 2008 needs to account for it. Its identifiers:
- Public law number: Pub. L. 110-325
- Statutes at Large: 122 Stat. 3553
- Date: September 25, 2008
Bluebook form: ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110-325, 122 Stat. 3553.9Congress.gov. Public Law 110-325 – ADA Amendments Act of 2008 Because the ADAAA amended existing provisions rather than standing on its own, its changes were folded into the same U.S. Code sections. The 2008 findings and purposes are codified as a note to 42 U.S.C. § 12101.1ADA.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended
When to cite the ADAAA separately: if your argument depends on the broadened definitions themselves or on congressional intent behind the 2008 changes. When to just cite the U.S. Code: if you’re applying the current definition without discussing how it changed. The code already incorporates the amendments.
Citing ADA Regulations
The statute sets out broad rights; the operational rules live in the Code of Federal Regulations, and courts cite them alongside the statute. The two most-cited sets:
- Title II regulations (state and local government): 28 C.F.R. Part 3510Legal Information Institute. 28 CFR Part 35 – Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services
- Title III regulations (public accommodations): 28 C.F.R. Part 3611eCFR. Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities
Bluebook format for a C.F.R. citation gives the title number, the abbreviation “C.F.R.,” the section, and the edition year in parentheses: 28 C.F.R. § 36.104 (2025). Cite the most recent edition, since the C.F.R. is revised annually.
Where to Find the Official Text
A citation is only as good as the reader’s ability to verify it. Two free, authoritative sources hold the ADA as codified:
- Office of the Law Revision Counsel (uscode.house.gov), the official source for the U.S. Code, updated on a rolling basis.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
- ADA.gov, where the Department of Justice publishes a readable version of the full ADA as amended, mapping the original title numbers to their U.S. Code locations.1ADA.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended
For the original 1990 session law, the Government Publishing Office hosts the Statutes at Large text at govinfo.gov.3U.S. Government Publishing Office. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 For the regulations, the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (ecfr.gov) is updated daily.11eCFR. Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities Cite the version you actually read.