Lecture: Disability and employment of the disabled under Americans with Disability Act (by Kevn Cremin)

December 4, 2014 - Kevin Cremin, Director of aging and disability rights litigation of MFY Legal Services Corporation, came to the Institute for Human Right to give a lecture on disability and employment of the disabled in the USA.

In the beginning, Mr. Cremin gave a brief overview of his activity and major problems he has been facing in his work. Then, he introduced the Americans with disability Act (ADA), which is a major act covering protection and emploument of the disabled in the US. 

Mr. Cremin touched upon the question why America didn't ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Particularly, he said that the primary reason for that was because the ADA had already provided perfect protection for the disabled. 

He went on to the subject of discrimination. In his opinion, there is no doubt that disability and discrimination have common standards. Particularly, article 1 of the ADA names  disabled employment as one of the grounds for discrimination. Only qualified persons are protected by the ADA, temporary disability is not included. 

Afterwards, Mr. Cremin continued to talk about other aspects of discrimination. They include at least three elements: different treatment, different negative impacts and denial of reasonable accommodation. Mr.Cremin referred to "reasonable accommodation" as an important notion. Governmental agencies and public corporations hire the disabled under the principle of discrimination prevention.

The lecture and the discussion that followed gave the students a better understanding of the ADA. Furthermore, they provoked much thinking about the employment problems the disabled people face in China. All in all, the lecture was meaningful and thought-provoking.

Written by Guo Chao