“Equal Opportunity” and Categories Two and Three
People who fall under any of the three categories in the definition of "disability" are protected from discrimination under Federal disability nondiscrimination laws, including Section 504. However, people in Categories Two and Three — those who have a record of a past disability, and those who are regarded as having a disability — are not entitled to benefit from the types of positive actions, such as reasonable accommodations, that are designed to provide equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
These positive actions are intended to help people with disabilities succeed in employment despite the barriers imposed by their substantially limiting impairments. Because people in Categories Two and Three do not have such substantially limiting impairments, they presumably do not need — and Federal disability nondiscrimination laws do not entitle them to — the additional assistance that reasonable accommodations, auxiliary aids and services (communication aids), and programmatic/architectural accessibility requirements are meant to provide. (All of these types of positive actions will be discussed later in this training.)
