The ADA Amendments Act did not rewrite the definition of disability. It changed how broadly that definition must be read, and the exam tests the reading rules.
The three-part definition
Under 42 U.S.C. 12102, disability means:
- A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;
- A record of such an impairment; or
- Being regarded as having such an impairment.
Wrong answers narrow it: a Social Security-style total disability standard ("prevents performance of any job in the national economy"), any diagnosed condition documented by a physician (which drops the substantial-limitation requirement and the last two prongs), or limiting major life activities to work and adding a hospitalization element.
The rule of construction
12102(4)(A): the definition shall be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of the chapter. The ADAAA provisions took effect January 1, 2009. The narrow reading, under which only severe impairments qualified, is precisely what the amendments were written to displace.
Mitigating measures and episodic conditions
- 12102(4)(E): substantial limitation is determined without regard to the ameliorative effects of mitigating measures — medication, hearing aids, mobility devices, assistive technology, learned behavioral modifications, and reasonable accommodations are all disregarded.
- The sole exception is ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses, whose effects ARE considered. Candidates routinely reverse this and assume eyeglasses are the one measure ignored. It is the opposite.
- 12102(4)(D): an impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active.
So epilepsy fully controlled by medication with no seizure in two years may still be a disability, on the actual-impairment prong. It is not routed to "regarded as" by default, and it is not tested by attendance over the past 12 months.
Carry this: disregard every mitigating measure except ordinary eyeglasses and contacts, and judge an episodic condition by what it does when active.