Seems to me that work is a major life activity. Even excluding that, this
ruling is pretty scary for people with disabilities caused by repetitive
stress injuries, and anyone who supports reasonable accommodations to ensure
equal employment opportunities.

Tracy

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Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Supreme Court Narrows Reach of Disability
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Supreme Court Narrows Reach of Disability Law

January 8, 2002

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS




WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court narrowed the reach of a
landmark disability rights law Tuesday, ruling that an
assembly line worker with carpal tunnel syndrome was not
entitled to special treatment on the job.

A unanimous court ruled that Ella Williams' partial
disability did not obligate her employer, car manufacturer
Toyota, to tailor a job to suit her wrist, arm and shoulder
problems.

The 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act guarantees equal
treatment on the job and elsewhere for people whose
disabilities "substantially limit" their ability to perform
what the law calls "major life activities," such as caring
for oneself.

Williams' disability did not prevent her from doing many
tasks at home and at work. But a federal appeals court
found that she was disabled under the ADA because her
physical problems substantially limited her ability to
perform manual tasks at work.

"This was error," the Supreme Court noted in an opinion
written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

In cases like Williams', "the central inquiry must be
whether the claimant is unable to perform the variety of
tasks central to most people's daily lives, not whether the
claimant is unable to perform the tasks associated with her
specific job," the court wrote.

Disability cannot be assessed by looking only at someone's
fitness to work, the court said.

The court reversed the opinion of the Cincinnati-based 6th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and sent the Williams case
back with instructions to reconsider it.

The ruling does not mean that anyone with carpal tunnel
syndrome or similar partial disabilities is automatically
excluded from protection by the ADA. But it probably will
make such claims harder to prove, since the court makes
clear that disability must affect a range of manual tasks
or duties.

Williams and advocates for the disabled had argued that her
case was emblematic of just the kind of discrimination the
ADA was supposed to prevent.

A partially disabled person who wants to work should be
able to do so, with modest accommodation by an employer,
rather than being forced to sit home, her lawyers have
argued.

Williams claimed that her work on a Toyota engine assembly
line so damaged her hands and arms that she has trouble
brushing her hair and buckling her shoes. Her doctor said
she cannot lift more than 20 pounds, repeatedly flex her
wrists and elbows or keep her arms extended at shoulder
height for long periods.

Williams' problems began within months of taking a job at
the Georgetown, Ky., manufacturing plant in 1990, she
claimed.

At oral argument in November, the justices focused on how
employers and courts should classify people who may be
unable to do some tasks, but are perfectly capable of doing
others.

"Don't you have to look at both what they can do and what
they can't do?" O'Connor asked Williams' lawyer then.

Toyota did try to accommodate Williams for a time, with a
job inspecting paint, but that truce broke down when the
company required her to swab cars with an oil that
highlighted paint flaws. The task, which involved keeping
her arms extended, aggravated her symptoms, Williams said.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups
backed Toyota. Several civil rights, legal and labor
interests supported Williams.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/08/national/08WIRE-SCOTUS.html?ex=1011515104&
ei=1&en=6b101c492397fc92



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