Welcome to a special return edition of Flipswitch’s “Learning the Terms” segment. I’m Samreen. On Learning the Terms, we break down all that confusing jargon you hear from doctors and experts and really smart people so that you can understand what the heck these people are talking about.
On this round of Learning the Terms, we’ll be learning a little bit about the Americans With Disabilities Act. More specifically, we’ll be talking about a section of the act that deals with the question of when you HAVE to disclose your disorder in some public setting. Here’s a preview of that section. NEVER!
But first, let’s go over some basics of the act as a whole. The Americans With Disabilities Act (or ADA as it’s often called) was passed in 1990 under president George Herbert Walker Bush (Dubya’s dad). The act was passed after a coalition of groups that advocated for an end to discrimination against people with disabilities of different types banded together to apply pressure to congress.
The law seeks to end discrimination against people with different disabilities, be they blindness, deafness, mental illness or whatever. Specifically, businesses and government offices were required to remove all barriers as much as possible that tended to keep people with disabilities out of them. This goes for general use as well as employment. So, buildings with high staircases had to be refitted with ramps and elevators for people with walking difficulties, and nowadays, you’ll notice that brail is used on many signs in buildings. All thanks to the ADA.
For our purposes, we want to look at issues of confidentiality as applied by the law. On a recent episode of Flipswitch, Aime Lynn talked about her struggles with a doctor attempting to reveal her disorder on a form that was to be given to a government agency. This attempt tipped off a firestorm for Aime Lynn in attempting to keep the information off of a form.
But that brings up an important question. When exactly would Aime Lynn have to tell her prospective employer or volunteer organization about any disorder she might have.
Well, according to the ADA, the answer is NEVER! She would never have to tell anyone at all about her disorder unless she chose too.
In section 1 of the ADA, employment and accommodations are explained to go hand in hand with revealing of any disorder. Basically, it’s like this: you don’t ever have to tell anyone about your disorder if you don’t want to. However, if you want accommodations from your job or from school or anywhere else that you may need in order to do well in any of those places, you’ll have to reveal your disorder in order to get them. Other than that, it’s all up to you.
You can get hired at a job without telling anyone about your condition. You can get promoted and then decide to reveal your condition. It’s all up to you.
So remember this one thing: The Americans With Disabilities Act says that YOU are in charge of revealing that you have a disorder of any kind. And by law, no public entity can reveal that information if you don’t want them to. It’s called confidentiality, and it’s serious business.
