31 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act
On July 26, 1990, thirty-one years ago today, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. In honor of the ADA’s 31st birthday, NAMI Chicago is taking a moment to celebrate how the rights and well-being of people with mental health conditions were impacted by this bill and other legislation that followed.
Follow along as we walk through history!
1990: Signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act
A major landmark in disability rights, the ADA made it illegal for employers, businesses, and government entities to discriminate against people with disabilities. “Disabilities” include mental health conditions such as major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and personality disorders.
Thanks to the ADA, employers were now required to provide “reasonable accommodations” for people with disabilities to create equitable access, and could not treat people with disabilities differently than those without. These actions were important precedents, but not always enforced or implemented. As the years passed, more legal action was needed to fill gaps in disability rights that the ADA did not cover.
1996: Mental Health Parity Act
The Mental Health Parity Act began a requirement that health insurance plans provide more equitable coverage for mental health and substance use services, compared to treatment for other health conditions. It used to be common for health care plans to have very minimal mental health coverage.
However, our experiences tell us that this disparity still exists for many people. That’s why parity continues to be a major advocacy goal for NAMI Chicago and other leaders, and further laws have been enacted around this issue, such as:
the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), which determined mental health care to be one of 10 essential health benefits that plans must offer, advances access and parity
1999: Olmstead vs. L.C.
This case determined that segregating people with mental and physical disabilities into institutions for treatment was a violation of the ADA. People with mental health and other conditions deserve to be integrated into the community as much as possible. This was followed by many state-level lawsuits and laws, including the Williams and Colbert Consent Decrees in Illinois, for which NAMI Chicago continues to work actively on implementation.
2008: The Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAAA)
Previously, courts took a narrow definition of what qualified as a disability under the ADA. For example, if a person’s medications reduced the way their illness affected daily life, those life improvements might mean they were denied protection under the ADA. The ADAAA made eligibility for protection much broader, reducing these access barriers for people with mental health conditions.
And beyond!
The signing of the ADA started some major strides forward to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities, including those with mental health conditions. There’s much more work to be done, but today is a day to celebrate our country’s 31 years of strides forward to create equity and inclusion for everyone, including those with mental health conditions.