The Americans With Disabilities Act and Alzheimer's Disease

The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, provides disabled employees with services and accommodations so that they can perform their jobs without fear of reprisal or discrimination. The ADA protects people who suffer with a disability--including Alzheimer's Disease--from being fired.

Identification

• Alzheimer's is a debilitating disease that fits under the umbrella of the ADA. Because many suffering from Alzheimer's have not yet reached retirement age, employers often witness the initial indicators of dementia, including the missing of deadlines or important meetings and the forgetfulness of tasks that workers are very familiar with. However, these same employers and supervisors are not equipped to deal with the problem.

Significance

• The Alzheimer's Association claims that 200,000 Americans under the age of 65 have the disease, and the number is increasing. Because of the ADA, employers must accommodate people with dementia by allowing them to keep the job they have held or to transfer them to a job with less responsibility.

Retirement

• The ADA does help Disabled Americans from being fired, but Alzheimer's creates a unique problem for workers. Early Onset Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia have been added to the Compassionate Allowances program so that the Social Security Administration can act quickly to help the younger sufferers to receive benefits within two months. This is critical because the early onset sufferers are normally still young enough to be among the work force but because of the disease they find the only thing they can do is retire.