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Hello list mates,

Here is my summary on Celiac and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and my need to vent. Despite saying no replies were necessary to my post I received 25 so I felt the need to summarize plus a number of you asked me to do so. Thank you to those of you who took the time to reply to me. It was very interesting reading and I believe people really did take the time to seriously think about this issue so my goal was accomplished whether you agreed with me or not. 

Thank you also for allowing me to vent because it felt good to do so and is a form of support that I needed. Believe it or not, I was very troubled about this and lost sleep over this issue. Tonight I'm putting this to bed and plan on sleeping like a log so I can get up for work tomorrow. LOL! 

The replies I received pretty much answered my question "Do you honestly think having celiac disease or being on a gluten free diet is something that should be covered under the ADA?" What prompted me to submit a post and feel the need to vent was because another poster suggested to the list serv that a women (who posted earlier) use the accommodation in the ADA to help her deal with business lunches and with an insensitive boss who did not respect her need for a gluten free diet. I think there are better ways of handling the situation.

In my family, we have three siblings with celiac disease, myself, my brother and my sister. My son and my brother both have severe physical disabilities and both use wheelchairs. My sister also has type 1 diabetes and is a cancer survivor. Due to my gene pool, I've had considerable exposure to the medical field. Much more than I wanted. Also I've spent countless hours advocating for my son and brother and the disabled in general.  

To clarify, my post was NOT intended to address children's dietary needs in school, people that have complications or significant side effects from CD. Those are very different and more complex issues in my opinion and my post was directed at adults in the workforce dealing with business lunches.  

Here is a brief recap that highlights the comments I received:  

Eighteen replies indicated that celiac or the GF diet should NOT be covered under the ADA. Many people commented that they are not disabled, the diet was an inconvenience, quite a few said they felt better on the diet (and many were quite ill but recovered after going GF) and several emphatically stated they did not have a disability and it could be a lot worse. Another said that diet is not such a bad way to treat a disease. Other suggestions were to communicate better to the boss or report the insensitive boss to the labor department. This comment was from an attorney who also has celiac: "One of the US Supreme Court Justices made a similar comparison in a litigation about the ADA.  He asked the arguing attorney whether  the fact that he (the justice) wore glasses made him covered by the ADA". I'd like to support the attorney's comment by saying that in the many disability newsletters I read, a great number of ADA cases are thrown out of court. 

Four replies indicated that YES celiac should be covered under the ADA, mostly to prevent future problems with gluten ingestion and that in general the disease covers a lot of gray area. There were concerns mentioned about protections for children in school. For those of you who disagreed, perhaps we can agree to disagree on whether celiac falls under the ADA. I appreciate the freedom to express our opinions without fear. 

Three replies were generally neutral in content and asked, If not the ADA then what can a celiac use? Another noted that the military cannot handle the GF diet. Diabetes was also mentioned at least twice.

One noteworthy and excellent suggestion for dealing with business lunches was to get a letter from your doctor indicating you must be on a GF diet and have it put it in your employee file.  

One story that I received and loved was this: "If you put everyone's problem in a bag and had to pull one out I would gladly take celiac over just about anything ranging from mental illness to cancers. Attitude is everything."

My final word on this issue is that I don't think we can expect our employers from small businesses to corporate conglomerates to have a good understanding of celiac disease and the gluten free diet when many medical professionals do not understand or can accurately diagnose the disease. I feel that it's up to us to educate our employers and raise their awareness so we can safely eat at all business functions and it can be accomplished with education and advocacy and avoid litigation. 

Joyce from 
New Jersey

*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*