Scope of the ADA

The scope of the ADA in addressing the barriers to participation by people with disabilities in the mainstream of society is very broad. The ADA's civil rights protections are parallel to those that have previously been established by the federal government for women and racial, ethnic and religious minorities.
 
The ADA's definitions of what constitutes discrimination towards people with disabilities and how barriers to their participation are to be eliminated are based on more than a decade of experience with the implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
 
Employment
The ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in public and private sector employment. This includes a requirement that those employers covered under the Act make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of qualified applicants and employees, unless providing such accommodations would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
 
State and Local Government
The ADA expands on the requirement of Section 504 that state and local government programs that receive federal financial assistance provide equal opportunity to individuals with disabilities to participate and benefit. The ADA extends the requirement to public programs that are not recipients of federal financial assistance and, therefore, not covered by Section 504.
 
Public Accommodations
The ADA's requirements that a wide range of "public accommodations" in the private sector eliminate physical, communications and procedural barriers to access addresses the widespread exclusion of people with disabilities from the routine activities of daily life which most Americans take for granted. The ADA reaches a broad range of sales, rental and service establishments, as well as educational institutions, recreational facilities and social services centers.
Reference: Wodatch J. (1990). The ADA: What it says. Worklife, 3, 3
 
Telecommunications
The ADA addresses the need to make telephone communications services accessible to individuals who have impaired hearing or speech. The ADA requires that all common carriers provide nationwide TRS, or Telecommunications Relay Services. Relay Services are operator systems that relay conversations between people who use TDDs (Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf) or nonvoice terminal devices and those who use the general voice telephone network.
 
Transportation
The ADA seeks to ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to a full range of public and private transportation. If transportation were to remain inaccessible to many individuals with disabilities, the ADA's goal of real social integration would be impossible to achieve.