The ADA: Your Employment Rights as an Individual With a Disability

What Employers Are Covered by the ADA?

Job discrimination against people with disabilities is illegal if practiced by:

• private employers,

• state and local governments,                                                            

  

• employment agencies,

• labor organizations,

• and labor-management committees.

The part of the ADA enforced by the EEOC outlaws job discrimination by:

• all employers, including State and local government employers, with 25 or more employees after July 26, 1992, and

• all employers, including State and local government employers, with 15 or more employees after July 26, 1994.

Another part of the ADA, enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice, prohibits discrimination in State and local government programs and activities, including discrimination by all State and local governments, regardless of the number of employees, after January 26, 1992.

Because the ADA establishes overlapping responsibilities in both EEOC and DOJ for employment by State and local governments, the Federal enforcement effort is coordinated by EEOC and DOJ to avoid duplication in investigative and enforcement activities. In addition, since some private and governmental employers are already covered by nondiscrimination and affirmative action requirements under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, EEOC, DOJ, and the Department of Labor similarly coordinate the enforcement effort under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.