Valley lawyers predict changes to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will make 2009 the "year of the ADA claim" as employee protections from workplace discrimination expand. 

"In the past, employer disability-discrimination cases have not had that much success," said Lori Higuera, director of the employment and practice group for the law firm Fennemore Craig. "It is very difficult to prove you are disabled, but changes like this make that easier. All of the changes mean that you are going to see a lot more complaints to the EEOC (Equal Opportunity Employment Commission) and a significant amount of litigation based on disability-discrimination claims."

The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed by President George H. W. Bush in July of 1990, bans employers from discriminating against individuals with disabilities by denying employment, not providing reasonable accommodations – such as ramps or hearing-assistance devices – and refusing to promote an employee because of impairment.

The Act has undergone numerous alterations as dictated by Congress and as a result of Supreme Court decisions since its enactment.

"The more significant effects we have seen to the law have been more so through court interpretations," Higuera said.    

Most court interpretations, Higuera said, have served to restrict what constitutes a disability under the law.

The original definition of disability is retained in the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), signed into law in September of 2008, as an impairment "substantially limiting" one or more major life activities, such as seeing, hearing or walking. But it expands the list of major life activities to include the operation of bodily functions such as the bladder, immune system or cell growth.

"You add all those into the mix, and it considerably expands what is a major life activity," Higuera said. 

The most significant change created by the amendment redefines "substantially limiting," thus overruling a series of Supreme Court decisions restricting the interpretation of the term.