Those words were spoken by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, upon the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act. There is no arguing that the ADA has been a watershed piece of legislation for many individuals with a disability, allowing them to fully engage in the work force. For those people, the ADA has alleviated the fear that just because you suffer from a disability you may lose your job, or you might not even be hired in the first place. The same, however, cannot be said for those with a mental illness. The ADA, while not purposefully, ignores the struggles of those with a mental illness and often times leaves the mentally ill with no protections whatsoever. This poses a tremendous issue because the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 18.3%, or nearly 44 million Americans, suffer from a mental illness.
This article will explore how the requirements of the ADA make it largely impossible for those with a mental illness to seek many of the statute’s protections including a request for a reasonable accommodation. Unlike other disabilities, such as cancer, blindness, troubles ambulating, etc., mental illness affects one’s ability to even appreciate that they have an illness, let alone to inform an employer of that illness and go through the myriad steps necessary to avail oneself of the law’s benefits. In particular, this article will look at the notice requirement in the ADA, which demand that an employee notify his employer of a disability and the need for an accommodation. Second, it will address the requirement that one engage in an interactive process to come to an accommodation that is reasonable for both the employee and the employer. Finally, this article will address the fact that many courts refuse to consider the one accommodation that most mentally ill individuals require; ignoring prior bad acts that resulted from the illness.
