Funding for Accommodations Provided to People with Disabilities Including Mandates under the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act, using a standard of “reasonable accommodation,” mandates that governments and businesses take steps to ensure that people with disabilities have access to employment, government services, and businesses.

Such access comes with costs, although not providing such access also imposes costs. There is very little research that documents or estimates these costs.

This project attempts to take a significant step in the direction of a data-based discussion of this issue.

Methodology

This work aims to understand different expenses incurred by governments or private organizations to provide accommodations to people with disabilities, especially those required under the ADA.

This was driven by our research questions:

• What are the government and private sectors’ financial expenses to accommodate people with disabilities?
• What are the expenses related to compliance with the ADA?