Epilepsy Foundation Urges Congress to Pass the ADA Restoration Act of 2007

Foundation Commends House Education and Labor Committee for Today’s Hearing

Landover, MD, January 29, 2008 — The Epilepsy Foundation commends the House Education and Labor Committee for holding today’s hearing on the ADA Restoration Act of 2007. This third such hearing in Congress indicates a growing commitment to this important legislation. The Epilepsy Foundation believes that this legislation must be passed in order to ensure that all individuals with disabilities are restored their right to protection against unfair discrimination in the workplace because of physical or mental impairments. 

“Various courts, including the Supreme Court, have diluted this landmark legislation,” said Eric R. Hargis, President and CEO of the Foundation. “Restoration of the ADA is a top priority for the Epilepsy Foundation because it is critical for people with epilepsy who want to work and deserve their right to be fully included in the American work force.”

In these decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that if a mental or physical condition can be managed through the use of “mitigating measures,” such as medication, prosthetics or the use of devices, the individual will be viewed as too functional to have a disability and will be denied the ADA’s protection against employment discrimination. People with a broad range of disabilities — including epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, depression, bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, HIV, missing limbs and intellectual and developmental disabilities — have been found not to be disabled under the ADA.

“People are being unfairly denied a job or fired because an employer mistakenly believes they cannot perform the job — or because the employer does not want ‘people like that’ in the workplace,” said former Congressman Tony Coelho, primary author of the ADA and immediate past chair of the Epilepsy Foundation. “The case is thrown out of court without the individual ever having the chance to show he or she is qualified for the position. The courts have decided that people with disabilities must prove they’re disabled enough to be protected. This is not what I intended when I wrote the ADA, nor what Congress intended when it passed it. It meant to protect all Americans with disabilities, and it is now time to restore the full promise f the ADA.”

To learn more, visit our special section on ADA Restoration.