What Is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that bans discrimination against people with disabilities in four areas of everyday life: jobs with private employers of a certain size, programs run by state and local governments, businesses open to the public, and telephone services. Signed in 1990 and significantly broadened by Congress in 2008, the ADA sets a national floor of access and equal treatment, and it gives you the right to file a complaint or sue when a covered employer, government, or business falls short.

Who Counts as Having a Disability

You are protected if any one of three things is true. You have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. You have a record of such an impairment. Or someone treats you as if you have one and acts against you because of it.¹

Major life activities are read broadly. They include walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working, along with major bodily functions like immune, digestive, neurological, and reproductive function.¹

The 2008 ADA Amendments Act changed how that limit is measured. Whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity must be decided without counting the helpful effects of medication, hearing aids, prosthetics, or other assistive devices. Ordinary eyeglasses and contact lenses are the only exception. A condition that comes and goes, such as epilepsy or multiple sclerosis in remission, still qualifies if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active, and Congress told courts to read the definition of disability broadly, in favor of coverage.¹

The “regarded as” prong protects you from stereotypes. If an employer fires you because they assume your condition keeps you from doing the job, you have a claim even if the condition does not actually limit you. The exception is an impairment that is both transitory (expected to last six months or less) and minor.¹

Protections at Work

Title I of the ADA applies to private employers with 15 or more employees, counted each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year. It prohibits discrimination in job applications, hiring, promotion, firing, pay, training, and every other term of employment.²³ Employers with fewer than 15 employees are not covered.

You are protected as a “qualified individual” if you can perform the essential functions of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation. That is the core question in most cases.³

Reasonable Accommodations

An accommodation might mean modifying equipment, restructuring how a job is done, changing a schedule, reassigning you to a vacant position, or providing a reader or interpreter. An employer who refuses must show that providing it would be an undue hardship, meaning significant difficulty or expense given the employer’s size, resources, and operations.³

The EEOC expects an “interactive process” once you ask: a conversation in which the employer identifies the essential job functions, you explain what your disability prevents you from doing, and both sides look for workable solutions. The employer does not have to give you your preferred fix, but the one it offers has to actually work. Ignoring the request is where most employers get into trouble.

What You Can Recover

Federal law caps the combined compensatory and punitive damages in an employment case based on the employer’s size:

15 to 100 employees: $50,000
101 to 200 employees: $100,000
201 to 500 employees: $200,000
More than 500 employees: $300,000

These caps apply per person.⁴ Back pay, reinstatement, and attorney’s fees are available on top of them.⁵

State and Local Government Services

Title II covers every program, service, and activity of state and local governments, whether or not the entity receives federal funding. No qualified person with a disability can be excluded from, or denied the benefits of, any government program because of their disability.⁶ That reaches public schools, courts, polling places, parks, and licensing offices. Governments have to make reasonable policy changes and remove barriers, and when a facility is inaccessible they must either fix it or move the service somewhere accessible.⁷

Paratransit

Public transit agencies must offer paratransit for people who cannot use fixed-route buses or trains because of a disability. Paratransit runs on the same days and hours as regular service, covers areas within three-quarters of a mile of a fixed route, and cannot cost more than twice the regular fare for a comparable trip. Providers must accept all eligible trip requests on a next-day basis, and a personal care attendant rides free. Eligibility is based on functional ability, not diagnosis, and agencies must give a written decision and an appeal.⁸

Government Websites and Apps

In 2024, the Department of Justice finalized a rule requiring state and local government websites and mobile apps to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA. Governments serving 50,000 or more people must comply by April 24, 2026; smaller governments and special districts have until April 26, 2027. Content outside the technical standard is still subject to the ADA’s general effective-communication and equal-access requirements.⁹

Businesses Open to the Public

Title III bans discrimination by private businesses open to the public. The statute lists 12 covered categories, including hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, banks, doctors’ offices, hospitals, museums, parks, private schools, and gyms.¹⁰ The general rule is that no one can be denied the full and equal enjoyment of a business’s goods, services, or facilities because of disability.¹¹

In existing buildings, businesses must remove architectural barriers when doing so is “readily achievable,” meaning it can be done without much difficulty or expense.¹⁰ New construction and major renovations have to meet full accessibility standards. Businesses must provide auxiliary aids for effective communication and cannot charge disabled customers extra or push them into separate facilities.¹¹

Religious organizations and the entities they control, including places of worship, are exempt from Title III, as are private clubs that qualify for the exemption under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.¹²

The Department of Justice can seek civil penalties for Title III violations, adjusted annually for inflation. As of July 2025, the maximum is $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for a subsequent one.¹³ Private individuals can sue for injunctive relief, such as a court order requiring a ramp or a policy change.¹⁴

Service Animals

Under the ADA, a service animal is a dog individually trained to perform a specific task for a person with a disability, and the task must relate to that disability. Emotional support, therapy, and companion animals do not qualify because they are not trained to do specific work.¹⁵

When it isn’t obvious a dog is a service animal, staff at a business or government office may ask only two things: whether the dog is a service animal required because of a disability, and what task it has been trained to perform. Staff cannot demand documentation, ask about the disability, or require a demonstration.¹⁵ Some state and local laws go further on emotional support animals; federal law does not.

Phone Service for People With Hearing or Speech Disabilities

Title IV requires phone companies to provide telecommunications relay services for people with hearing or speech disabilities, using a communications assistant to relay messages between a text-based caller and a voice caller. The service must operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and the FCC sets the technical standards and enforces compliance.¹⁶

How to File a Discrimination Claim

Where you go depends on what happened.

Job Discrimination

For workplace discrimination, file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before suing in federal court.¹⁷ The deadline is 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act, extended to 300 days if your state has its own agency enforcing a similar law. Weekends and holidays count toward the deadline, though if the last day is a weekend or holiday you get the next business day.¹⁸

After the EEOC investigates, or if you want to move on your own, you can request a Notice of Right to Sue. Once 180 days have passed since you filed, the EEOC must issue the notice on request. You then have 90 days from receiving it to file suit in federal court.¹⁷

Government Services and Businesses

For a Title II or Title III complaint, file with the Department of Justice, which runs a free voluntary mediation program and can open a formal investigation if the other side declines to mediate.¹⁹ For Title III, you can also sue directly for a court order fixing the violation. The DOJ can bring its own actions in pattern cases or matters of public importance.¹⁴

Retaliation and Stronger State Laws

Retaliation against anyone who files a complaint, testifies, assists an investigation, or otherwise exercises ADA rights is illegal, and so is coercing, intimidating, or threatening a person for exercising or supporting someone else’s rights.²⁰ Courts can award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to the prevailing party.²¹ The ADA does not displace any federal or state law that provides greater protection, so a stronger state disability law still applies on top of it.²²

Tax Help for Small Businesses Making Access Improvements

Two federal tax provisions help cover the cost of accessibility. Small businesses with gross receipts of $1 million or less, or no more than 30 full-time employees, can claim the Disabled Access Credit for 50% of eligible access expenditures between $250 and $10,250 per year, up to a $5,000 annual credit.²³ Any business can also deduct up to $15,000 per year for the cost of removing architectural and transportation barriers.²⁴ The credit and the deduction can be used in the same year, but not for the same dollar of spending.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12102 – Definition of Disability
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12112 – Discrimination
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
4
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance: Compensatory and Punitive Damages Available Under Section 102 of the CRA of 1991
5
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ADA: Your Employment Rights as an Individual With a Disability
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12132 – Discrimination
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12131 – Definitions
8
Federal Transit Administration. Frequently Asked Questions
9
U.S. Department of Justice ADA.gov. Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12181 – Definitions
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12182 – Prohibition of Discrimination by Public Accommodations
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12187 – Exemptions for Private Clubs and Religious Organizations
13
Federal Register. Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustments for 2025
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12188 – Enforcement
15
U.S. Department of Justice ADA.gov. Frequently Asked Questions About Service Animals and the ADA
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 225 – Telecommunications Services for Hearing-Impaired and Speech-Impaired Individuals
17
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
18
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
19
U.S. Department of Justice ADA.gov. The ADA Mediation Program: Questions and Answers
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12203 – Prohibition Against Retaliation and Coercion
21
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12205 – Attorney’s Fees
22
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12201 – Construction
23
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 44 – Expenditures to Provide Access to Disabled Individuals
24
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 190 – Expenditures to Remove Architectural and Transportation Barriers to the Handicapped and Elderly