Thirty-two years ago this week, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. As of July 26, 1990, this key piece of federal civil rights law prohibited to discriminate against people based on their disability. The legislation has five sections that provide regulations for: employment, public services, public accommodations and services operated by public entities, telecommunications, and other miscellaneous provisions. In this blog post we’ll be taking a look at how each of these sections help ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else, as well as provide some “framing data”  on disability and accessibility in the 11-county Atlanta region.

Title I – Employment

This section of the ADA is enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and meant to ensure that people with disabilities have access to the same employment opportunities and benefits available to people without disabilities. Title I defines what a disability is and creates a process for disabled employees to receive reasonable accommodations to perform their jobs. This section of the ADA only applies to employers with 15 or more employees.

As of 2019, there were a total of 285,874 firms or employers in the 11-county Atlanta region. Of those employers, only 42,270 firms had 20 or more employees. This means that just over 14.8% of employers in the metro area must abide by this provision of the ADA (ECNSVY Business Dynamics Statistics, Firm Size: 1978-2019, 2019). Meanwhile, of the 403,961 non-institutionalized disabled people ages 16 or older in the Atlanta region, only 25.77% are employed and 70.60% are not even in the labor force (American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates, S1811, 2019).

Title II – Public Services

This section of the ADA ensures that programs, services, and activities conducted by state and local government agencies are accessible to individuals with disabilities. It is enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice. One of the services covered by Title II is public transportation. This includes: Buses, subways (rapid rail), light rail, commuter rail, and Amtrak. Identifying and remediating architectural barriers in such services is an integral part of this section. Physical barriers affect access to about 227,170 people in the 11-county Atlanta region that reported having an ambulatory disability that makes it hard to walk or climb stairs (American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates, S1810, 2020).

Title III – Private Entities

This section of the ADA is also enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice and prohibits privately owned, leased, or operated facilities from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. Title III does this in part by setting minimum standards for accessibility for alterations and new construction of such spaces. All new construction after 1992 must be fully compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG).

To get an idea of how many commercial properties in the Atlanta metro area are subject to the ADAAG:

  • 4,699 office properties were built in 1992 or later, accounting for 142 million square feet of space and 35.6% of all offices
  • For retail, there were 8,886 properties built by 1992 or after with 161 million square feet of space, meaning 43.2% of all retail spaces should be physically accessible
  • 473 hotels were also built in 1992 or later, so about 58.3% of all hotels in the region must completely follow these minimum standards

Title IV – Telecommunications

This section of the ADA mandates that telephone and internet companies provide relay services that allows individuals with hearing or speech disabilities to communicate over the telephone. It is enforced by the Federal Communication Commission. There are approximately 108,456 people in the 11-county Atlanta region that reported being deaf or having serious difficulty hearing (American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates, S1810, 2020).

Title V – Miscellaneous Provisions

The last section of the ADA describes legal technicalities like what conditions are not considered disabilities, the law’s impact on insurance providers and benefits, and who is responsible for attorney’s fees.

For more information on the Americans with Disabilities Act, you can visit the ADA National Network at adata.org.