Definition: Americans with Disabilities Act

A U.S. Department of Labor guarantee of equal opportunity for people with disabilities. Launched in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications as well as access to state and local government programs. Other federal agencies are also involved in ADA.

An ADA Example on Websites
Website screen readers for the blind gloss over bold and italicized text that is identified with the original HTML "b" and "i" codes. The ADA requires "strong" and "emphasis" tags so that a screen reader will identify the changed text.