What Is Necessary for a Person to Prove That He or She Has a Disability Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

To prove you have a disability under the ADA, you have to demonstrate that you either have a physical impairment or disability, a medical condition, that affects a major life function that allows you to still do your job with or without some reasonable accommodation. For example, diabetes, if you need a little refrigerator or something in your office to hold your insulin. If your employer doesn’t accommodate that, or if your employer does something negative to you, like fires you or disciplines you for treating that condition, that can trigger the claim under the disability statues, both under the federal law and the state law. New York and New Jersey have a wide spectrum of coverage conditions, so the individual condition that you’re dealing with would have to be addressed under the statute, but there are a wide range. As long as the employer knows you have a disability or perceives you have a disability, then you have coverage under the ADA.