07/27/2026
36 years ago today the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed.
in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. The ADA is a landmark civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on physical and mental disabilities. It also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations and establishes accessibility requirements for public spaces.
The law is divided into five titles:
• Title I prohibits disability discrimination in employment for employers with 15 or more employees.
• Title II guarantees accessible state and local government programs, public transportation, and public housing.
• Title III ensures equal access to the goods, services, facilities, and accommodations of places of public accommodation.
• Title IV requires telecommunications companies to provide functionally equivalent services for individuals with disabilities.
• Title V includes technical provisions and protects individuals from retaliation for exercising their rights under the ADA.
The ADA was the result of years of advocacy. In 1978, the National Council on Disability (NCD) was established and later recommended Congress pass a "comprehensive equal opportunity law." The first version of the ADA was introduced in 1988 by Senator Lowell Weicker and Representative Tony Coelho with bipartisan support before being reintroduced in the 101st Congress. On March 13, 1990, hundreds of disability rights activists gathered at the U.S. Capitol to demand the bill's passage, with more than 100 protesters arrested. On July 26, 1990, the House passed the bill and President Bush signed it into law.
Since 1990, the ADA has continued to evolve. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 broadened protections after several Supreme Court decisions narrowed the law's scope, and ongoing advocacy has expanded accessibility standards to include digital spaces such as websites and other online services.
