Disability Discrimination

 In studying disability discrimination, we will focus on Title I of the ADA, which focuses on employment. The ADA raises relatively unique questions in a disparate treatment context. First, defining who belongs to the protected class in question is not obvious--we will address the issue in defining who counts as a qualified individual with a disability. But not all disabled workers are entitled to bring such a claim: Employers are permitted to engage in disparate treatment on the basis of disability if the disabled employee is unable to perform the essential functions of the job. In addition, employers are free to use qualification standards that screen out disabled individuals if those qualifications are job-related and consistent with business necessity. We will focus on these core dimensions of disability discrimination next.