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  ADA Amendments Act

email: reimburse@cochlear.org




Updated September 14, 2008

Great news for persons with hearing loss!

The Senate yesterday passed the ADA Amendments Act (S.3406) by unanimous consent. This bill restores the provisions of the ADA that were largely gutted by recent US Supreme Court decisions. It broadens the Court's definition of disability back to its original intent.

This critical bill means that disability must now be assesed without regard to any mitigating drugs, devices, or other measures. It also ensures that anyone with is "substantially limited in performing a major life activity" is defined as disabled, and not just those who are restricted only from those activities that the Court views are of "central importance to most people's lives."

You may recall that several health plans, Social Security disability offices, and even employers had tried to claim that persons with cochlear implants were no longer disabled because the implant "corrected" their hearing loss. This bill removes that argument entirely!

The bill must be reconciled with a weaker House version before going to the President. Both the House and Senate bills passed by such overwhelming margins (only 17 dissenting votes) that any veto would be overriden.

Kudos to the Hearing Loss Association of America and Alexander Graham Bell for getting behind this critical piece of legislation. However, as you can see from the Senate letter, the American Speech Language Hearing Association continues to be one of the few disability related groups who refused to get on board, citing its long-term policy of refusing to be involved in issues that may be "controversial" and "hurt our image."