ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act.New Window It was signed into law by President George Bush in 1990, and it’s America’s most important law regarding accessibility and civil rights for people with disabilities, including web accessibility. 

Essentially, ADA prohibits discrimination against anyone based on ability or disability. It came about after a 2-year campaign to advance civil rights to marginalized groups, including Americans with disabilities. Disability activists and advocates lobbied intenselyNew Window for laws that would prohibit discrimination, and from 1988 they began to garner cross-partisan support for federal legislation.  

ADA draws on the precedent that was set by Section 504New Window of the much older Rehabilitation Act, which guarantees certain rights to people with disabilities. However, the Rehabilitation Act was very limited and only applied to the government sector.