The assignment

Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1954 defines the “physically disabled individual as ‘any individual who is under a physical or mental disability which constitutes or results in a substantial handicap to employment, but which is of such a nature that vocational rehabilitation services may reasonably be expected to render him fit to engage in a remunerative occupation’” (as cited by Feldblum, 2000).

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) defines “the term ‘disability’ in respect to the individual: (A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such an impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such impairment” (Department of Justice, 2008). The ADA, as amended in 2008 states, “a person has a disability only if his/her limitations are, were, or are regarded as being the result of an impairment” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, 2008).

The HHS fact sheet on What is Disability and Who is Affected by Disability defines disabilities as “characteristics of the body, mind, or senses that, to a greater or lesser extent, affect a person’s ability to engage independently in some or all aspects of day-to-day life and that different disabilities affect people differently” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, 2008). The HHS definition states that “disability is neither inability nor sickness.”

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