Qualified Individual With a Disability: ADA and Section 504

Under federal law, a qualified individual with a disability is a person who meets two tests at once: they have a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and they can perform the essential duties of the job, or meet the basic eligibility criteria for the program, with or without reasonable accommodation. Having a disability alone is not enough. Being able to do the job alone is not enough. Both halves have to line up before the law’s protections attach.

The ADA covers private employers with 15 or more employees and state and local government services. Section 504 covers any entity that receives federal funding. The two-part test works the same way in both.

The Legal Definition of Disability

Federal law uses a three-part definition, and you only need to fit one part.¹

The first prong covers a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Major life activities include walking, seeing, hearing, breathing, and concentrating, along with the operation of major bodily functions like the immune or neurological system.

The second prong covers a record of such an impairment. Cancer in remission, a past episode of severe mental illness, a history that has since resolved — any of these still qualify. Employers and programs cannot hold a medical past against you after recovery.

The third prong covers being regarded as having an impairment. If an employer refuses to hire you because they assume a condition makes you incapable, that counts even if the condition does not actually limit you.

Mitigating Measures Do Not Disqualify You

Medication, hearing aids, prosthetics, insulin pumps, and other treatments do not take you out of the definition. When deciding whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity, the assessment is made without considering the helpful effects of these mitigating measures. Well-controlled epilepsy is still epilepsy for legal purposes. The one narrow exception is ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses meant to fully correct vision; their corrective effects can be considered.¹

Coverage Is Meant To Be Broad

Before 2008, courts often threw out ADA claims by ruling that the person’s condition was not severe enough to qualify. Congress responded with the ADA Amendments Act, directing that “disability” be interpreted broadly and in favor of coverage. The EEOC has confirmed that conditions like diabetes, bipolar disorder, and multiple sclerosis were wrongly excluded under the old standard.² The legal fight today is generally about whether discrimination happened, not whether your condition is “disabled enough.”

Who Is Not Covered

Two limits catch people off guard.

Current illegal drug use is not protected. If an employer acts against you based on active illegal drug use, the ADA does not shield you. The law does, however, protect people who have successfully completed a rehabilitation program and are no longer using, people currently in rehabilitation and no longer using, and people wrongly perceived as using drugs when they are not. Employers may adopt reasonable drug testing to verify continued abstinence in those categories.³

The second limit is subtler. If you qualify only under the “regarded as” prong, you are protected from discrimination, but you are not entitled to reasonable accommodations. The statute is explicit on this point.⁴ To be entitled to accommodations, you need to qualify under the first prong (an actual impairment that substantially limits a major life activity) or the second prong (a record of one).

What “Qualified” Means at Work

The disability half of the test gets you inside the door of legal protection. The “qualified” half asks whether you can actually do the job at issue.

For employment, a qualified individual is someone who can perform the essential functions of the position they hold or want, with or without reasonable accommodation.⁵ You also have to meet the legitimate skill, experience, education, and licensing standards that apply to any applicant for that job.

Essential Functions Versus Marginal Ones

Essential functions are the fundamental duties of a position. If a task is marginal — something incidental, easily handled by someone else, or done rarely — your inability to perform it does not make you unqualified. The EEOC’s implementing regulations list several types of evidence for sorting essential from marginal:⁶

Written job descriptions prepared before advertising or interviewing.
How much of the workday the task consumes.
Whether removing the task would fundamentally change the role.
How current and past employees in similar positions have actually spent their time.
The employer’s own judgment, weighed alongside the other factors rather than as the final word.

The Same Performance Standards Apply

An employer can hold you to the same quality and quantity standards that apply to anyone else in the role. If a warehouse job requires packing 50 units per hour, the target does not drop as an accommodation. What the employer may need to do is provide a reasonable accommodation that helps you meet the standard, such as modified equipment or a different workflow. The bar stays where it is, but you may be entitled to a different way of clearing it.⁷

What “Qualified” Means for Programs and Public Services

Outside employment, the test shifts slightly. Section 504 protects any otherwise qualified individual with a disability from being excluded from a federally funded program or activity solely because of that disability.⁸ Under ADA Title II, a qualified individual is someone who meets the essential eligibility requirements for a public entity’s programs, with or without reasonable modifications to rules, removal of architectural barriers, or provision of auxiliary aids and services.⁹

Eligibility requirements here might be age thresholds for a school program, income levels for social services, or a valid license for a transportation program. Meet those criteria and have a disability, and the entity cannot exclude you. It may, however, have to modify how it delivers the service so you can take part.

Reasonable Accommodation Is Part of Being Qualified

The phrase “with or without reasonable accommodation” is doing real work in both tests. You count as qualified if you can perform the essential functions on your own, and you also count as qualified if you can perform them once a reasonable accommodation is in place.

The statute lists examples: making facilities accessible, restructuring jobs, modifying work schedules, reassigning an employee to a vacant position, acquiring or modifying equipment, and providing readers or interpreters.⁵ The range is broader than the list; the right accommodation depends on the specific job and the specific impairment.

Reassignment sits at the bottom of the ladder. An employer only has to consider moving you to a vacant position after concluding that no accommodation would let you perform your current job, or that every option would impose an undue hardship. If reassignment is the answer, the employer should first look for an equivalent position in pay and status; if nothing equivalent is open, a lower-level vacant position you are qualified for may be required. The employer does not have to create a new position or displace another employee to make room.¹⁰

The outer limit on the duty to accommodate is undue hardship: significant difficulty or expense measured against the employer’s overall resources, size, structure, and operations. A $500 piece of equipment might be an undue hardship for a five-person business and trivial for a national chain. Undue hardship also covers accommodations so disruptive they would fundamentally alter how the operation runs.¹⁰

When a Qualified Person Can Still Be Excluded

Even a person who meets both halves of the test can be lawfully excluded if they pose a direct threat. The statute defines this as a significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.⁵ The EEOC’s regulations extend the concept to risk to the individual themselves.⁶

This is not a general escape hatch. A direct-threat finding has to rest on an individualized assessment of your current ability to safely perform the job, using current medical knowledge and objective evidence. The regulation names four factors, all weighed together: the duration of the risk; its nature and severity; the likelihood that harm will actually occur; and how imminent that harm is.⁶ Stereotypes and general fears do not qualify. For infectious diseases, the EEOC expects employers to consult authoritative medical sources like the CDC; if the evidence shows workplace transmission is virtually nonexistent, the employer cannot claim a direct threat.¹¹ The employer carries the burden of proving the defense.

If You Believe Your Rights Have Been Violated

Qualifying only matters if you act. For workplace discrimination under ADA Title I, file a charge with the EEOC within 180 calendar days of the discriminatory act, extended to 300 days in states with their own disability agency.¹² After the EEOC processes the charge and issues a right-to-sue letter, you have 90 days to file a lawsuit in federal court.

For discrimination by a state or local government, you can file a complaint with the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, online or by mail. The DOJ may investigate, refer the matter to mediation, or route it to another federal agency, and it does not investigate every complaint.¹³

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12102 – Definition of Disability
2
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Questions and Answers Final Rule Implementing the ADA Amendments Act of 2008
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12114 – Illegal Use of Drugs and Alcohol
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12201 – Construction
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 1630.2 – Definitions
7
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Applying Performance and Conduct Standards to Employees with Disabilities
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 794 – Nondiscrimination Under Federal Grants and Programs
9
ADA.gov. Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Regulations
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA
11
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations of Employees Under the ADA
12
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
13
ADA.gov. File a Complaint