1619 (Dec. 7, 1974), Individuals with Disabilities are: Any person who (a) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person's major life activities, (b) has a record of such an impairment, or (c) is regarded as having such an impairmentwhere Major life activities include caring for one's self, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, working, performing manual tasks, and learning.
The United States Department of Labor also indicates that "Small Providers" do not have to make "significant structural alterations to their existing facilities" to accommodate individuals with disabilities.
To a large degree, the passage of the ADA supplants the employment provisions of §504, reinforces the accessibility requirements of §504 with more specific regulations".
[9] Section 504 was the first national civil rights legislation that provided equal access for students with disabilities to higher education institutions receiving federal financial assistance.
[citation needed] Higher education institutions are required to make their programs accessible to qualified students with disabilities.
In addition to its responsibility for enforcing other federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in housing, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a statutory responsibility under Section 504 to ensure that individuals are not subjected to discrimination on the basis of disability by any program or activity receiving HUD assistance.
Further, Section 504 covers employment discrimination based on disability and requires HUD and HUD-assisted agencies to make reasonable accommodations for the known physical or mental limitations of an employee or qualified applicant.
Any person with a disability who believes that have been discriminated against in a HUD-funded program or activity may file a complaint with HUD under Section 504.
[18][19] As a law that fell within the office of Health, Education, and Welfare, this was an unlikely place for a social justice provision, yet inserting such a rights clause happened without fanfare.
Concerned about costs and enforcement, the Nixon and Ford Administrations attempted to stall the regulations both by rewriting them and calling for further study regarding their impact if they did stay in their present form.
[citation needed] Institutions such as universities and hospitals hoped to avoid bad publicity and huge expenses by waiting out the regulation process.
Led by Judith E. Heumann, eighty activists staged this sit-in on Madison Avenue, stopping traffic.
When he took office in January 1977, he too grew concerned about costs and invited Joseph Califano, the new HEW head, to study the legislation and its implications by establishing a task force that did not include representation from ACCD or anyone with a disability.
[citation needed] Word leaked out that the 504 regulations that insisted on full integration of people with disabilities were being changed into something more akin to "separate but equal."
Organizer Kitty Cone captured the mood and the accomplishment by saying: "We showed strength and power and courage and commitment, that we the shut-ins or the shut-outs, that we the hidden, supposedly the frail and the weak, that we could wage a struggle at the highest level of government and win!
"[19][21][32] The protest is considered "perhaps the single most impressive act of civil disobedience in the United States over the last quarter-century.
The protests also led Califano to sign the regulations for the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act, another law awaiting a signature from the head of HEW after congress had passed it.
Along with provisions from 504, this law paved the way for bringing children with disabilities into the educational mainstream, giving them access to better schooling and opportunities.
Patrisha Wright and Evan Kemp, Jr. (of the Disability Rights Center) led a grassroots and lobbying campaign against this that generated more than 40,000 cards and letters.
[26] In 1984, the administration dropped its attempts to weaken Section 504; however, they did end the Social Security benefits of hundreds of thousands of disabled recipients.
Because of being drafted based on 504, the ADA also framed disability in the context of civil rights rather than as a medical need, using terms such as "discrimination," "reasonable accommodation," and "otherwise qualified.
"[18] The cross-disability coalitions forged during the 504 protests also ensured that the ADA would employ a broad definition of disability so that it could encompass a wide variety of impairment groups.
[18] Activists formed by the 504 occupation such as Patrisha Wright spent the next thirteen years building relationships in Washington that would help pave the way for passing the ADA.
[19] With thirteen years of Section 504 on the books, framers of the ADA could point to evidence that the earlier law had not led to the massive economic collapse that some had predicted (115-6).