Who Says You're Disabled? The Role of Medical Evidence in the ADA Definition of Disability

Authors

Deirdre M. Smith, University of Maine School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2007

Abstract

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted by Congress seventeen years ago, offered disabled people a hope of equality and access that has not been fulfilled. ¹ Court decisions halt an overwhelming majority of claims, particularly in the employment context, at the summary judgment stage. ² A key mechanism for fencing out disabled people's claims is the pernicious requirement, based upon the very construction of disability that the ADA's proponents aimed to dispel, that medical evidence is required as a threshold matter to demonstrate that the plaintiff is entitled to seek protection under the statute. ³ The medical evidence requirement embodies and applies a model of disability that pathologizes disabled people and undermines the statute's effectiveness as a tool to advance civil rights.

Publication Title

Tulane Law Review

Volume

82

Article Number

1022

First Page

1

Suggested Bluebook Citation

Deirdre M. Smith, Who Says You're Disabled? The Role of Medical Evidence in the ADA Definition of Disability, 82 Tul. L. REV. 1 (2007).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/faculty-publications/22