Types of ADA Violations

Reviewed by Yael Krieger (YK), Editor-in-Chief — Disability Rights & ADA Litigation Practice. Updated May 2026.

The ADA prohibits disability discrimination across three primary domains — employment, government services, and public accommodations — with different legal standards, coverage requirements, and available remedies applicable to each. Correctly identifying which title applies determines what the defendant was legally obligated to do, what defenses are available, and what remedies the plaintiff can seek.

Title I: Employment discrimination

Title I applies to private employers, state and local government employers, employment agencies, and labor organizations with 15 or more employees. It prohibits discrimination in all aspects of employment — hiring, compensation, promotion, job assignments, training, benefits, leave, and all other terms and conditions. The central obligation is to provide reasonable accommodations that enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their positions, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer.

The interactive process is the procedural core of Title I accommodation claims. When an employee requests an accommodation — or when the employer has reason to know that an accommodation may be needed — the employer must engage in a good-faith dialogue with the employee to identify an accommodation that addresses the limitation and allows performance of the essential functions. Unilateral determinations by the employer, refusals to discuss alternatives, or dismissals of requests without exploration are independently actionable as failures to engage in the interactive process, even if the employer could have established that no reasonable accommodation existed.

The most common Title I violations in litigation:

• Failure to accommodate: denying an accommodation request without demonstrating undue hardship. Common claims involve denial of modified schedules, remote work, reduced hours, reassignment to a vacant equivalent position, leave beyond FMLA entitlement, or assistive technology. The employer must show that no reasonable accommodation existed that would allow performance without undue hardship — the burden of establishing undue hardship rests with the employer.
• Wrongful termination: firing an employee because of a disability, because they requested an accommodation, because they took ADA-protected leave, or on the pretextual basis of performance or conduct issues that arose after an accommodation request. Courts scrutinize whether the stated reason for termination is consistent with the employer’s prior treatment of the employee and whether the termination timing correlates with protected activity.
• Failure to hire: rejecting a qualified applicant because of disability, perceived disability, or record of disability. Pre-employment medical inquiries are strictly regulated: employers may not conduct medical examinations or inquire about disability before making a conditional offer of employment. Post-offer medical examinations are permissible only if conducted for all entering employees in the same position and used only to verify ability to perform job functions, not to screen out people with disabilities.
• Disability harassment (hostile work environment): sustained conduct based on disability that is severe or pervasive enough to alter the terms and conditions of employment. The standard mirrors Title VII hostile work environment doctrine: isolated teasing, occasional comments, or minor incidents do not establish hostile environment; a pattern of conduct that a reasonable person would find abusive and that the plaintiff subjectively experienced as hostile does. Employer liability depends on who engaged in the harassment and whether management knew and failed to respond.
• Retaliation: adverse action against an employee who engaged in protected ADA activity — filing an EEOC charge, requesting an accommodation, opposing discriminatory practices, or participating in an ADA investigation. The ADA’s retaliation provision protects employees from adverse action even when the underlying disability discrimination claim is not ultimately successful: an employer who retaliates against an employee for requesting an accommodation that turns out not to have been legally required has still violated the retaliation provision if the adverse action was causally connected to the request.

Title II: State and local government

Title II covers all programs, services, and activities of state and local government entities regardless of size. Unlike Title I, there is no employee threshold: a two-person municipal water authority is as fully covered as a state department with thousands of employees. The obligation extends to physical accessibility of government facilities, effective communication for people with hearing or visual impairments, program modifications that allow people with disabilities to participate, and the accessibility of government websites and digital services.

Common Title II violations: inaccessible polling locations that effectively exclude people with mobility impairments from voting; inaccessible websites and online portals for government benefits programs; failure to provide sign language interpreters at court proceedings; exclusion from jury service based on disability; and denial of equal access to government recreational facilities, transportation systems, or social services.

Remedies under Title II include injunctive relief requiring modification of the program, service, or facility. Money damages are available for intentional discrimination — meaning the defendant knew of the discrimination and chose not to correct it. Claims against state governments face Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity limits that restrict money damages available in some circuits; claims against local government (cities, counties) are not subject to sovereign immunity and carry the full range of remedies.

Title III: Public accommodations

Title III covers places of public accommodation: hotels, restaurants, retail stores, theaters, sports facilities, gyms, hospitals, medical offices, pharmacies, schools, and social service establishments, among others. Religious organizations and private membership clubs are exempt. Covered entities must remove architectural and communication barriers where readily achievable (easily accomplishable without significant difficulty or expense), provide auxiliary aids and services for effective communication, and modify policies and practices to allow equal access.

Website accessibility litigation under Title III has increased substantially. Courts in most circuits have held that websites of covered businesses must be accessible to people with disabilities — particularly visual, auditory, and motor impairments — especially when the website is integral to accessing the physical accommodation or the business’s services. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA have become the de facto standard for compliance, though the ADA itself does not specify a technical standard. DOJ has issued guidance supporting WCAG 2.1 AA as the appropriate benchmark.

Private plaintiffs under Title III are generally limited to injunctive relief, not money damages, in most federal circuits. The DOJ can seek civil penalties in enforcement actions. Some circuits have allowed compensatory damages for intentional discrimination. Attorney fees are recoverable by the prevailing party.

Perceived disability and record of disability

The ADA protects people under three alternative prongs: (1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; (2) a record of such an impairment; and (3) being regarded as having such an impairment. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 substantially broadened the “regarded as” prong: an employer violates the ADA if it takes adverse action based on an actual or perceived physical or mental impairment, whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity. The only exception is for impairments that are both transitory (expected to last six months or less) and minor.

Record-of-disability claims protect people with a history of a qualifying impairment even if they are currently fully functional: a person with a history of cancer, a former addiction that is in remission, or a prior episode of severe depression who is now well-controlled is protected against discrimination based on that history. Perceived disability claims are particularly common in hiring situations where disclosed medical information or visible characteristics prompt rejection of otherwise qualified candidates.

One important limitation: employees covered solely under the “regarded as” prong are not entitled to reasonable accommodations. The reasonable accommodation obligation applies only to employees with actual disabilities (under the first prong) or a record of disability (under the second prong).

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