Temporary Conditions

A condition does not have to be permanent to qualify as a disability. The Supreme Court has recognized that the ''impairment's impact'' could be ''long-term.'' For example, a person with a back problem that lasted for one year was held to have been ''handicapped'' under the Rehabilitation Act. Also, an intermittent impairment that is caused by an underlying long-term medical condition may constitute a disability under the ADA. On the other hand, a condition that is of very short duration will not qualify as a disability. The Fourth Circuit has held that to apply ''the protections of the ADA to temporary impairments ... would dramatically expand the scope of the Act ... . Congressional findings, enacted as part of the ADA, require the conclusion that Congress did not intend for the Act's protections to extend to individuals with temporary impairments. Congress found that 'some 43 million Americans have one or more physical or mental disabilities.' If Congress had intended temporary disabilities to be covered by the Act, this number undoubtedly would have been much higher.''