(Who qualifies as a "person with disability"?)
By: Gary Link, Attorney at Law, Sacramento, CA (916) 447-8101
In our last two articles we introduced the new Department of Justice disability guidelines to our readers, and identified the persons and entities who are responsible for complying with the Fair Housing Act relating to persons with disabilities.
In the new guidelines it states that "The Act defines a person with a disability to include (1) individuals with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; (2) individuals who are regarded as having such an impairment; and (3) individuals with a record of such an impairment.
The term ‘physical impairment' includes, but is not limited to, such diseases and conditions as orthopedic, visual, speech and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection, mental retardation, emotional illness, drug addiction (other than addiction caused by current, illegal use of a controlled substance) and alcoholism.
The term ‘substantially limits' suggests that the limitation is ‘significant' or ‘to large decree.'
The term ‘major life activity' means those activities that are of central importance to daily life, such as seeing, hearing, walking, breathing, performing manual tasks, caring for one's self, learning and speaking. This list of major life activities is not exhaustive."
In Part Four of this continuing series of articles regarding disability accommodations, we will discuss who does not qualify as a "person with disability".
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