Opinion ID: 774554
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Major Life Activities

Text: 74 Title I of the ADA prohibits discrimination in employment against disabled individuals and specifically applies to those individuals who can perform the essential functions of a job with or without reasonable accommodation. 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111(8). The Act defines disability  as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual. §§ 12102(2)(A). The Act does not define substantial limitation or major life activity, nor are those terms self-defining. 75 Congress has, however, provided guidance as to its general intent, informative in applying the undefined terms. First, Congress in the ADA itself declared the overriding purpose of the statute: 76 [T]he Nation's proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for such individuals . . . . 77 42 U.S.C. §§§§ 12101(a)(8). Cf. Sutton, 527 U.S. at 484-87 (relying on the ADA's statement of findings to discern Congress' intent). Similarly, the Senate Report and House Reports state that the purpose of the ADA is to bring persons with disabilities into the economic and social mainstream of American life. E.g., S. Rep. No. 101-116, at 2 (1989); H.R. Rep. 78 No. 101-485(II), at 22 (1990), reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 303. 79 This articulated purpose indicates that the interpretation of the undefined ADA terms here critical must take account of the realities of life in today's highly literate and technological society. Otherwise, Congress' goals of economic self-sufficiency and independent living for the disabled could not be achieved. Only by considering the significance of an activity in the context of our society as it exists today can we determine what constitutes a major life activity: The physical ability to use a bow and arrow to hunt for one's food might have been an important aspect of the major life activity of performing manual tasks 2,000 years ago, but today it probably would not be. 80 Court decisions, in accord with this Congressional intent, have recognized that the delineation of major life activities must take account of economic or social -not purely biological -factors. In McAlindin, 192 F.3d at 1233-34, we defined major life activities as activities significant in the life of the average person, and explained that to determine whether a life activity is major, courts should examine the number of people who engage in it, a standard that incorporates the physical and social realities of peoples' lives. In particular, we concluded that interacting with others, a quintessentially public, social function, constitutes a major life activity. Id. at 1234. Thus, while major life activities are not confined to those with a public, economic, or daily aspect, Bragdon, 524 U.S. at 639, skills with those aspects are quintessential parts of the activities that are covered by the ADA. 81 The EEOC's interpretive regulations, unlike the statute, do define major life activities to some degree -as functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. 29 C.F.R. §§ 1630.2(i); 3 see also 28 C.F.R. §§ 35.104 (Department of Justice's regulation defining major life activities in the same way for purposes of interpreting Title II of the ADA); 28 C.F.R. §§ 36.104 (same for Title III). 4 The EEOC's inclusion of learning and working in the litany of major life activities reflects the understanding that the ADA promotes disabled individuals' ability to attain economic selfsufficiency, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101(a)(8), and to enter the economic and social mainstream of American life. E.g., S. Rep. 101-116; H. Rep. 101-485(II). 82 At the same time, the regulations' list of major life activities is clearly overlapping, not discrete. Many jobs, and most education, as usually carried out require seeing, hearing, and walking, as well as performing manual tasks. As the statute speaks of major life activities generally, there is no basis, in light of the overall purposes of the statute, to construe only some major life activities as important for participation in the larger society but others as pertinent only to personal wellbeing. 83 All of these interpretive aids point, in my view, in one direction: In considering the nature of a multifaceted major life activity in order to determine later the scope of an individual's limitations, a primary emphasis should be a practical one, focused upon the aspects of that activity of greatest importance in fostering participation in modern society. Examples using other major life activities may clarify what I mean. 84 Seeing is a major life activity. In deciding whether someone is substantially limited in seeing, I would suppose it would be all-important whether the person could see well enough to read, because reading is of such transcendent importance in making one's way in the modern world. That the individual could see well enough to dress herself, do her laundry, and cook would, presumably, not detract from the fact that she was substantially impaired in seeing because she could not read, given the critical importance of reading to self-sufficiency in life. 85 Similarly, learning is a major life activity, one with many components. See Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1993). If someone were unable to learn to read and write, 5 we would not say that she is not disabled with regard to learning, because she is a whiz at mathematics, a wonderful musician, and picks up social skills easily. On the other hand, the fact that another person could not learn music would not be a substantial limitation with regard to learning, without more -because learning music, while interesting, enjoyable, and useful for some vocational purposes, is not essential to effective participation in modern society. 86 Similarly, while individuals perform many tasks with their arms and hands, all such tasks are not coequal in importance, nor are the tasks involving biological survival (feeding oneself, for example) or personal care of greater significance for purposes of the ADA than those essential to participation in the larger contemporary society. 87