About one in five Americans has some type of disability and may be a victim of discrimination in the workplace. In September 1973, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law H.R. 8070, sponsored by Representative John Brandemas (D-IN). From a legal perspective, this represented a profound and historic shift in American disability policy. With the passage of Section 504 of H.R. 8070 (called The Rehabilitation Act of 1973), which prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability, this marked the first time that people with disabilities were viewed as a group, a minority group. This section also provided opportunities for children and adults with disabilities in education and employment and allowed for reasonable accommodations such as special study areas and necessary assistance for students with disabilities. Moving forward, in 1990, Congress passed the Americans With Disabilities Act (The ADA ), and with that, various new protections for employees with qualifying disabilities became law (this law was amended in 2008, and those amendments went into effect on January 1, 2009). The mission of the ADA is to “ensure equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for persons with disabilities” (42 USC § 12101(a)(8)). The goal of the ADA is to eliminate discrimination and remove physical barriers that prevent Americans with disabilities from enjoying benefits similar to those of their non-disabled peers in the workplace, while shopping, in restaurants, and in other public gathering places . The protection of the ADA is limited to those who can establish a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities or to those who have a history of such an impairment. It is important to note that the purpose of ...... half of the document ...... child bleed, many of them focus on the immediate concerns of how the child will function in school and what services will be available to him or her. As these children grow and are ready to graduate from high school and enter the workforce, they often have limited options available to them. As a result, many adults with autism or other cognitive disabilities receive state disability benefits or are dependent on their parents for life (www.eeoc.gov). The ADA did not begin on July 26, 1990, nor did it begin in 1988, when it was first introduced to Congress. It all started when mothers and fathers saw their disabled children excluded. It all started when people with disabilities challenged the barriers that excluded them from their communities. It all started when social activists started fighting for disability rights. Without the work of many, there would be no ADA.