Preview

Critique of Ada and Affirmative Action

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
904 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Critique of Ada and Affirmative Action
Critique of ADA and Affirmative Action

Marilyn Piasecki

BSHS 422

August 20, 2012
Darla Roberts, MA, MAEd, CRC
Critique of ADA and Affirmative Action In the ever changing workplace of today companies are constantly monitoring to ensure the proper implementation of policies and procedures related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Affirmative Action, and equal employment opportunities. Throughout modern history incidents of discrimination and matters of civil liberties often initiate changes in laws, statute, or public policies. In this paper will be presented a critique of ADA and Affirmative Action with pros and cons to determine if they have been effective to overcome past policies, practices, and barriers that affect equal employment opportunities for individuals.
The Americans with Disabilities Act Basically The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) makes it unlawful to discriminate against individual with a physical or mental disability in regard to employment opportunities, in state or federal services, transportation, public accommodation, or telecommunication. The ADA was designed to improve conditions in the workplace that would allow individuals with disabilities to participate, contribute, and function in society ("Affirm Able Action Associates," 2012). When the ADA was first implemented there were and still are gaps in the law that allows businesses to ignore ADA compliance policies. Older buildings because of the expense of modification and to equip them they were grandfathered in and allowed to ignore ADA compliance laws. When businesses or nonprofit organizations are allowed to ignore these laws clients in this vulnerable population are not being served and are being discriminated against.
Employers are required to make reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities. Reasonable accommodation may include any changes or adjustments made to improve the job or work environment that would enable an individual with a



References: Affirm Able Action Associates. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.disability-access.org/ada.php Affirmative Action. (2009). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/ Messerli, J. (2012). BalancedPolitics.org - Affirmative Action. Retrieved from http://www.balancedpolitics.org/affirmative_action.htm

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    According to "Disabled World" (2012), “The ADA states that a covered entity shall not discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability. This applies to job application procedures, hiring, advancement and discharge of…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ada and Affirmative Action

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    An individual may have a visible or invisible disability; either should not reject a person from equal opportunity. Discrimination against, race, gender, age, and disability is illegal whether one recognizes it or not. Truthfully, discrimination still exist in the world but with hope to come and with the help of ADA, this can be something of societies past. Moreover, to protect the disable, the American Disability Act (ADA) of 1990 was passed by Congress to try eliminating discrimination. The ADA’s primary objective is to protect discrimination against a person with mental or physical disabilities in the private sector in areas such as employment, telecommunication, transportation and public services.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The ADA legislation prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities. As an employer and Human Resources representative, any agency with fifteen or more employees is prohibited from discriminating against applicants, job seekers, and employees with…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Employment and Policy Law

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The disability act provides guidelines for employers to follow, and sets up mandates which must be followed in order to provide reasonable accommodations for a disabled person. Some of these accommodations must include availability to handicap access points to buildings, and accommodations within a building for a disabled person to be able to be mobile within the organizations structures.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This group of service users might be at risk of discrimination because of their disability. For example, an employer refuses to employ someone even though they are suitable for the job, because they are in a wheelchair. This is direct disability discrimination.…

    • 1305 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines Affirmative Action as “positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded. When those steps involve preferential selection—selection on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity—affirmative action generates intense controversy.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2001)…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Opposing views on affirmative action (1996) (miscellaneous) Since the beginning of time there has been prejudice and hate. Adam and Eve hated snakes. Jews hated Jesus. Sugar Ray Leonard hated Tommy Hearns. Prejudice is caused by two things: ignorance and hate. Prejudice and mistreatment has existed in this country, first with American-Indians and then later with African-Americans and other minorities. The selling and trading of slaves is a shadow that has been hanging over the heads of white Americans for two centuries. Some people feel that it is the white-American's duty to pay the black population back. According to Spencer Perkins, co-author of More than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of Gospel, in reference to the long-standing racial divisions in America, "It took us 300 years to separate ourselves like this, it's going to take a while to undo that." (Zipperer 44) Affirmative action is designed to give minorities, such as blacks, the opportunity to maintain jobs in our prejudicial society. For those who support Affirmative Action they define it as a way to give the disadvantaged a chance at the "American dream." Those who do not support Affirmative Action define it as giving minorities positions that they are not qualified to have. As Mr. Khalenberg, head editor of The New Republic says, "we will still reward those who play the victim" (Khalenberg 27). Just imagine that you have gone through six years of college and have gotten your degree. You go looking for a job and even though they are tough to come by you manage to get an interview with a well-known company. The interviewer tells you that you and one other person are equally qualified and in the running for the job. You get a call later telling you that you didn't get the job because the company had to hire a minority. You would most likely be angry, right? The purpose of this paper is to show the differences in how people feel about the issues involved with affirmative action. This paper was…

    • 3156 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Before starting this class and especially the research paper, I knew very little about the ADA. During the period of research and writing the paper I hope to obtain a better grasp on the ADA in general. But I also hope to learn some things that my current place of employment can improve our standards when it comes to those with disabilities. The ADA was signed into law on July 26, 1990 by then President George H. W. Bush. It prohibits discrimination based on disability and only disability. It is fairly similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.…

    • 2604 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Affirmative action is a social policy created to promote the welfare of minorities by supporting the idea that individuals are all created equal and should not be judged by race or gender. Therefore, in situations like job and university applications, we should consider minorities to be as feasible a choice for hire as a white male candidate, taking into consideration their background. In short, it tries to give minorities that have been at a disadvantage their whole life, an opportunity to ‘equal the playing field ' by providing a broader context by which to measure an applicant or prospective employee. In the end, however, this goal is not realized. Instead, superficial ‘quotas ' are established and the discrimination that was once placed on the minorities now turns the other way.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Affirmative Action is constantly seen as an unfair intentional treatment to classes not protected by anti-discrimination laws. This paper will describe the elements of affirmative action and how it applies to employees in the private and public sector. It will also show how affirmative action interacts with Title VII requirements of Equal Employment Opportunity.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Affirmative Action programming is seen by some as a mechanical remedy to past social conditions that penalized minority member applicants for employment, women, or persons with disabilities. In the United States, Affirmative Action has been seen as compensation for the exclusion of the African American community, in particular, and has been hoped to create upward mobility for more members of this sector. In this sense, Affirmative Action may have much encouraged individuals to strive for education, training or employment of kinds they would not have thought accessible, in past generations. Similarly, women have been helped by Affirmative Action to know that their applications will be taken seriously. Moreover, as the public grows used to seeing a more diverse workforce, including visible minority members and women in positions of responsibility, then attitudes change as to who is a suitable worker for this position, or that field. The argument is that, in time, all citizens will expect a diverse workforce.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Applicant C requires the use of a wheelchair to move about due to paralysis and the position that they applied for requires movement about the entire company offices, including elevator access to any of the seven floors in the headquarters building. Applicant C was denied employment because their employment would cause undue hardship for Company…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Discrimination Paper

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Another cause of discrimination is the disability one. This is covered in the Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Acts of 1990 who prohibits private employers, states and local government, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. A qualified employee or applicant with a disability is an individual who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job in question. Reasonable accommodation may include making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities; job restructuring, modifying work schedules, reassignment to a vacant position and acquiring or modifying equipment or devices,…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summarizing The ADA

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The United States of Department of Labor defines the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), later amended in January 2009, as prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities (“Americans with disabilities,”). Basically the ADA protects individuals with disabilities the same way they protect all individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, natural origin, age, and religion. The ADA currently contains 5 specific sections or Titles that cover everything from employment to telecommunications. However Title III of the ADA specifically prohibits private places of public accommodations from discriminating against individuals with disabilities (“What is the,”). This particular Title is associated with the hospitality industry and where they receive their guidance in reference to the minimum standards for accessibility on new construction or modifications needed for hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, etc.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    There was a time in this country when those who worked got paid and those who did not work did not get paid. At least, that is the way the majority saw it, white males. This thinking did not take into consideration people who could not work due to a mobility issue or those who could not get a job based on their skin color. Any time these days there is a call of racism or disabilities politicians come running with their solutions that they feel will help get them elected and get that vote. These are hot button issues and the politicians' solutions, while well intentioned, have caused more issues than solved problems. Affirmative action is the ends to those solutions. These solutions have become the new problems as they are ends and not means. Affirmative action hopes to end the plight of minorities getting good jobs by requiring businesses of a particular size to hire x number of minority workers in relevance to the businesses size. ADA is a means as it empowers; "the Americans with Disabilities Act is more than a new regulation for employers; it provides the impetus for employers to develop a better understanding of how people with disabilities can be a vital addition to the work force," (Bailey & Pati 1995). Title 1 of the ADA is the focus here as it is in regards to employment. In order to understand the relevance of both ADA and affirmative action it is necessary to critique them both and the account for what needs to be changed for these acts to be less controversial and much more effective and helpful.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays