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Chapter 2: Individuals With Disabilities

III-2.1000 General.

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination against any "individual with a disability." People commonly refer to disabilities or disabling conditions in a broad sense. For example, poverty or lack of education may impose real limitations on an individual's opportunities. Likewise, being only five feet in height may prove to be an insurmountable barrier to an individual whose ambition is to play professional basketball. Although one might loosely characterize these conditions as "disabilities" in relation to the aspirations of the particular individual, the disabilities reached by title III are limited to those that meet the ADA's legal definition -- those that place substantial limitations on an individual's major life activities.

Title III protects three categories of individuals with disabilities:

1. Individuals who have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;
2. Individuals who have a record of a physical or mental impairment that substantially limited one or more of the individual's major life activities; and
3. Individuals who are regarded as having such an impairment, whether they have the impairment or not.

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Virginia Commonwealth University | www.dbtac.vcu.edu
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (#H133A060087-01)
VCU DBTAC Coordination, Outreach and Research Center
1112 East Clay Street| P.O. Box 980330 | Richmond, Virginia 23298-0330
Phone: (804)827-0917 | Fax: (804) 828- 828-1321
This website is maintained by the VCU DBTAC Coordination, Outreach and Research Center.
The VCU DBTAC Coordination, Outreach and Research Center does not provide ADA technical assistance.
For ADA technical assistance, contact your local Center at 800-949-4232.
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