Disability, as used in the ADA, is much more expansive than the accepted medical usage. In the congressional findings supporting the ADA, it was estimated that approximately 43 million persons were disabled by the standards of the ADA. Although traditional definitions of disability would hardly include one fifth of the population, the ADA defines disability, with respect to an individual, as the following:

1. a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual;

2. a record of such an impairment;

3. or being regarded as having such an impairment.