Frequently Asked Questions About the ADA

Common questions about the rights and responsibilities that citizens have under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) include:

What is a disability?

A disability is physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a "major life activity".

What is a major life activity?

"Major life activities" may include but are not necessarily limited to life functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, and learning.

Guides That Assist in Understanding the ADA

The following documents are guides about laws for disabilty rights, small businesses, and more.

• Guide to Disability Rights Laws - A 21-page booklet that provides a brief overview of eleven Federal laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities and provides information about the federal agencies to contact for more information.
  
  
• Project Civic Access - Cities and Counties: First Steps Toward Solving Common ADA Problems.
  
  
• The ADA and City Governments, Common Problems - A 9-page document that contains a sampling of common problems shared by city governments of all sizes, provides examples of common deficiencies and explains how these problems affect persons with disabilities.  City and County governments follow the same rules.
  
  
• Common ADA Problems at Newly Constructed Lodging Facilities - The ADA Standards are designed to make lodging facilities usable by persons with a wide variety of disabilities.
  
  
• ADA Guide for Small Business - This 15-page illustrated guide presents an overview of some basic ADA requirements for small businesses that provide goods and services to the public.
  
  
• ADA Frequently Asked Questions - A 31-page booklet giving an overview of the ADA's requirements for ensuring equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation, and requiring the establishment of TDD/Telephone relay services.
  
  
• Service Animals  - Service animals are animals that are individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities.
  
  
• Assistance at Gas Stations  - The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires gas stations to provide equal access for their customers with disabilities.
  
  
• Parking  - Maryland has requirements that are in addition to the information provided at the following site.  As specified in the Maryland Accessibility Code, COMAR 05.02.02.
  
  
• Technical Requirements for Parking  - Technical requirements for parking from the Americans with Disability Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) - 05.02.02.

Additional information may be obtained by contacting the ADA Coordinator at rcalkins@co.ba.md.us
Documents accessed from this web page are available in an alternate format on request.

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Revised November 19, 2004