Legal Question in Disability Law in Tennessee

ADA, Fibromyalgia and CFS dianoses

The ADA is NOT triggered by a medical diagnosis. This is because mere diagnosis of an illness does not mean there is a disability. A disability is defined under the ADA as follows: "Disability" means "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual." 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12102(2)(A). A "qualified individual with a disability" is "an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires." 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12111(8).There is a second route to triggering the ADA, and that is that the person is PERCEIVED as having a disability, whether they in fact have one or not.If the condition those illneses leave a person in meets the definition, THEN the person is disabled under the ADA, but not before.