a) Findings. The Congress finds that

(1) physical or mental disabilities in no way diminish a person’s right to fully participate in all aspects of society, yet many people with physical or mental disabilities have been precluded from doing so because of discrimination; others who have a record of a disability or are regarded as having a disability also have been subjected to discrimination;

(2) historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities, and, despite some improvements, such forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem;

(3) discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation, institutionaliza-tion, health services, voting, and access to public services;

(4) unlike individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, or age, individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of disability have often had no legal recourse to redress such discrimination;

(5) individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers, overprotective rules and policies, failure to make modifications to existing facilities and practices, exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, segregation, and relegation to lesser services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or other opportunities;

(6) census data, national polls, and other studies have documented that people with disabilities, as a group, occupy an inferior status in our society, and are severely disadvantaged socially, vocationally, economically, and educationally;

(7) the Nation’s proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for such individuals; and

(8) the continuing existence of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and prejudice denies people with disabilities the opportunity to compete on an equal basis and to pursue those opportunities for which our free society is justifiably famous, and costs the United States billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses resulting from dependency and nonproductivity.

• The ADA mentions a qualified individual with a disability. What is such a qualified individual ?
• Are mental conditions cognizable under the ADA?
• What are some examples of disabilities under the ADA?
• How is a disability defined within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
• What major laws prohibit discrimination based on disability or handicap?
• Are mixed motive claims cognizable under the ADEA as they are under Title VII?
• Does it violate the ADEA for an employer to provide a date of birth question on an employment application?
• Can an employer establish mandatory retirement limits?
• My supervisor made comments like you’re too old for the job. Is that evidence of age discrimination?
• Can young people even those under 40 sue for age discrimination under state laws?
• Can a younger person in the protected class sue for age discrimination?
• What if an employer fires one employee who is 65 and replaces him or her with someone who is 47. Does this constitute age discrimination since both employees are over 40?
• How old must an employee be to qualify for protection under the ADEA?
• What sorts of employer actions can constitute unlawful retaliation?
• How does an employee prove retaliation?
• If an employee files both a sex or race discrimination claim and a retaliation claim, can the retaliation claim survive even if the underlying sex or race claim is dismissed?
• Does Title VI I’s retaliation clause protect an employee who participates not in a court proceeding or EEOC investigation but in an employer’s internal investigation of sexual harassment?
• What does Title VII say about retaliation?
• What is an example of a discrimination case involving religion in which it was ruled that the employer did not accommodate the employee adequately?
• If the employee establishes a prima facie claim, what must the employer do?